Ma. Ostrovsky et Hh. Weetall, OCTOPUS RHODOPSIN PHOTOREVERSIBILITY OF A CRUDE EXTRACT FROM WHOLE RETINA OVER SEVERAL WEEKS DURATION, Biosensors & bioelectronics, 13(1), 1998, pp. 61-65
A lipid/detergent micellar crude extract from whole octopus retinas wh
en illuminated with blue light under slightly acidic conditions of pH
6.7 produces acid metarhodopsin that can be quantitatively converted t
o rhodopsin with red light. The octopus rhodopsin in detergent micelle
s was recycled at 25 degrees C at least 50 times over a period of seve
ral weeks. This material has characteristics similar to some bacterior
hodopsin mutants. With improved stability and genetic modification, th
e invertebrate-retinal-containing protein may be a candidate for infor
mation storage and retrieval material. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier
Science Limited.