Protein-bound water molecules in primate red- and green-sensitive visual pigments

Protein-bound water molecules play crucial roles in the structure and function of proteins. The functional role of water molecules has been discussed for rhodopsin, the light sensor for twilight vision, on the basis of X-ray crystallography, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and a radiolytic labeling method, but nothing is known about the protein-bound waters in our color visual pigments. Here we apply low-temperature FTIR spectroscopy to monkey red (MR)- and green (MG)-sensitive color pigments at 77 K and successfully identify water vibrations using D(2)O and D(2)(18)O in the whole midinfrared region. The observed water vibrations are 6-8 for MR and MG, indicating that several water molecules are present near the retinal chromophore and change their hydrogen bonds upon retinal photoisomerization. In this sense, color visual pigments possess protein-bound water molecules essentially similar to those of rhodopsin. The absence of strongly hydrogen-bonded water molecules (O-D stretch at <2400 cm(-1)) is common between rhodopsin and color pigments, which greatly contrasts with the case of proton-pumping microbial rhodopsins. On the other hand, two important differences are observed in water signal between rhodopsin and color pigments. First, the water vibrations are identical between the 11-cis and 9-cis forms of rhodopsin, but different vibrational bands are observed at >2550 cm(-1) for both MR and MG. Second, strongly hydrogen-bonded water molecules (2303 cm(-1) for MR and 2308 cm(-1) for MG) are observed for the all-trans form after retinal photoisomerization, which is not the case for rhodopsin. These specific features of MR and MG can be explained by the presence of water molecules in the Cl(-)-biding site, which are located near positions C11 and C9 of the retinal chromophore. The averaged frequencies of the observed water O-D stretching vibrations for MR and MG are lower as the λ(max) is red-shifted, suggesting that water molecules are involved in the color tuning of our vision.