Structural insights into light harvesting by antenna-containing rhodopsins in marine Asgard archaea
Aquatic bacterial rhodopsin proton pumps harvest light energy for photoheterotrophic growth and are known to contain hydroxylated carotenoids that expand the wavelengths of light utilized, but these have not been characterized in marine archaea. Here, by combining a marine chromophore extract with purified archaeal rhodopsins identified in marine metagenomes, we show light energy transfer from diverse hydroxylated carotenoids to heimdallarchaeial rhodopsins (HeimdallRs) from uncultured marine planktonic members of 'Candidatus Kariarchaeaceae' ('Candidatus Asgardarchaeota'). These light-harvesting antennas absorb in the blue-light range and transfer energy to the green-light-absorbing retinal chromophore within HeimdallRs, enabling the use of light that is otherwise unavailable to the rhodopsin. Furthermore, we show elevated proton pumping by the antennas in HeimdallRs under white-light illumination, which better simulates the light conditions encountered by these archaea in their natural habitats. Our results indicate that light-harvesting antennas in microbial rhodopsins exist in families beyond xanthorhodopsins and proteorhodopsins and are present in both marine bacteria and archaea.
Authors
- Shirley Larom (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9519-8472)
- Ana Molina-Márquez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6291-3708)
- Osamu Nureki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1813-7008)
- Yuma Matsuzaki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2545-233X)
- Hideki Kandori (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4922-1344)
- Igor Schapiro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8536-6869)
- Rei Abe‐Yoshizumi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7082-7949)
- José Cheel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5789-9297)
- Daniela Bárcenas-Pérez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3552-1394)
- Wataru Shihoya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4813-5740)
- Masae Konno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0605-1816)
- Tatsuki Tanaka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5728-7573)
- Andrey Rozenberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9534-2297)
- Rosa León (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6243-6454)
- Ariel Chazan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2768-5818)
- Michal Koblížek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6938-2340)
- Yosuke Mizuno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4874-0679)
- Marı́a del Carmen Marı́n (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6603-1692)
- Oded Béjà (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6629-0192)
- Shunya Murakoshi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7019-9332)
- Keiichi Inoue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6898-4347)
- Kota Katayama (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8498-4374)
- Gali Tzlil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6370-7611)
- Probal Nag (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7414-1824)
- Shota Itakura
Institutions
- Tokyo University of Science (JP)
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (IL)
- Universidad de Jaén (ES)
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
- Nagoya Institute of Technology (JP)
- TU Dortmund University (DE)
- University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (CZ)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Microbiology (CZ)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
- Universidad de Huelva (ES)
- Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Microbiology
- Published
- 2025-05-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-025-02016-5
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Photoreceptor and optogenetics research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.36
Funders
- Israel Science Foundation
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science