Conspectus Active transport is a vital and ubiquitous process in biological phenomena. Ion-
pumping rhodopsins are light-driven active ion transporters that share a heptahelical …

Heliorhodopsin releases a proton from the Schiff base during the L-state to M-state transition
but not toward the protein bulk surface. Here we investigate proton transfer and induced …

Proton-pumping rhodopsins, which consist of seven transmembrane helices and have a
retinal chromophore bound to a lysine side chain through a Schiff base linkage, offer …

Recent discoveries of light‐driven inward proton‐pumping rhodopsins have opened new
avenues to exploring the mechanism of unidirectional transport because these proteins …

Heliorhodopsin (HeR), a recently discovered new rhodopsin family, contains a single
counterion of the protonated Schiff base, E108 in HeR from Thermoplasmatales archaeon …

Photoreceptor proteins play a critical role in light utilization for energy conversion and
environmental sensing. Rhodopsin is a prototypical photoreceptor protein containing a …

The creation of unidirectional ion transporters across membranes represents one of the
greatest challenges in chemistry. Proton-pumping rhodopsins are composed of seven …

Photoisomerization of an all-trans-retinal chromophore triggers ion transport in microbial ion-
pumping rhodopsins. Understanding chromophore structures in the electronically excited …

The high-resolution structure of heliorhodopsin crystallized at low pH reveals the presence
of a planar triangle molecule, acetate, in the inner water cavity. Here, we investigate how the …

Retinylidene conformations and rearrangements of the hydrogen-bond network in the
vicinity of the protonated Schiff base (PSB) play a key role in the proton transfer process in …