title: The role of the 11-cis-retinal ring methyl substituents in visual pigment formation.
abstract: Artificial visual pigment formation from ring-demethylated retinals was studied in an effort to understand the effect that methyl groups on the chromophore cyclohexenyl ring have on the visual cycle. The stereoselective synthesis of the 11-cis-ring-demethylated analogues involves thallium-accelerated Suzuki cross-coupling reactions and highly stereocontrolled Wittig reactions to form key bonds. Only 11-cis-1,1,5-trisdemethylretinal (2) failed to form an artificial pigment, whilst variable pigment-formation yields were determined for the remaining analogues, increasing with the number (and location) of the chromophore hydrophobic ring methyl groups. Our results with the monodemethylated analogues 11-cis-5-demethylretinal (4) and 11-cis-1-demethylretinal (5) show that the C1-2-CH(3) groups are more important for pigment formation than the C5-CH(3) substituent. This is reflected in the absorption maxima of the artificial pigments, with values closer to that of native rhodopsin for 4. Docking studies based on a rhodopsin crystal structure, however, predict a lower pigment stability for 4 than for 5. Gas-phase DFT (B3LYP/6-31G*) computations of the free-ligand geometries, conformational searches about the C6--C7 bond, and docking studies revealed that, although the conformation of bound 5 is close to that of the native chromophore, the ligand needs to overcome the energy cost of shifting the unbound favored 6-s-trans conformation to the bound 6-s-cis form. In addition, the presence of an extra methyl group at C18 (11-cis-18-methylretinal, 7) is tolerated well and adds further stability to the complex, most probably due to increased hydrophobic interactions.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química Orgánica, Facultade de Química, Universidade de Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Domínguez
authors.forename: Rosana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: Martín
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Palczewski
authors.forename: Angel R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: de Lera
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D008745:Methylation; D008958:Models, Molecular; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012168:Retinal Pigments / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D012172:Retinaldehyde / Q000737:chemistry*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis
chemical_list: D012168:Retinal Pigments; D012172:Retinaldehyde