title: Steric barrier to bathorhodopsin decay in 5-demethyl and mesityl analogues of rhodopsin.
abstract: Absorbance difference spectra were recorded from 20 ns to 1 micros after 20 degrees C photoexcitation of artificial visual pigments derived either from 5-demethylretinal or from a mesityl analogue of retinal. Both pigments produced an early photointermediate similar to bovine bathorhodopsin (Batho). In both cases the Batho analogue decayed to a lumirhodopsin (Lumi) analogue via a blue-shifted intermediate, BSI, which formed an equilibrium with the Batho analogue. The stability of 5-demethyl Batho, even though the C8-hydrogen of the polyene chain cannot interact with a ring C5-methyl group to provide a barrier to Batho decay, raises the possibility that the 5-demethylretinal ring binds oppositely from normal to form a pigment with a 6-s-trans ring-chain conformation. If 6-s-trans binding occurred, the ring C1-methyls could replace the C5-methyl in its interaction with the chain C8-hydrogen to preserve the steric barrier to Batho decay, consistent with the kinetic results. The possibility of 6-s-trans binding for 5-demethylretinal also could account for the unexpected blue shift of 5-demethyl visual pigments and could explain why 5-demethyl artificial pigments regenerate so slowly. Although the mesityl analogue BSI's absorption spectrum was blue-shifted relative to its pigment spectrum, the blue shift was much smaller than for rhodopsin's or 5-demethylisorhodopsin's BSI. This suggests that increased C6-C7 torsion may be responsible for some of BSI's blue shift, which is not the case for mesityl analogue BSI either because of reduced spectral sensitivity to C6-C7 torsion or because the symmetry of the mesityl retinal analogue precludes having 6-s-cis and 6-s-trans conformers. The similarity of the mesityl analogue BSI and native BSI lambda(max) values supports the idea that BSI has a 6-s angle near 90 degrees, a condition which could disconnect the chain (and BSI's spectrum) from the double bond specifics of the ring.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: G B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sheves
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Szundi
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Kliger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D004224:Diterpenes; D010782:Photolysis; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012172:Retinaldehyde / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry; D012243:Rhodopsin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: C439302:11-mesitylretinal; C439301:5-demethylretinal; D004224:Diterpenes; C015017:bathorhodopsin; D012243:Rhodopsin; D012172:Retinaldehyde