Formation and decay of prelumirhodopsin at room temperatures

We have excited detergent-solubilized bovine rhodopsin at room temperature with 530-nm light pulses from a mode locked laser, and have observed the appearance and decay of a transient species that absorbs more strongly at 560 nm than does ground-state rhodopsin. Our data show that the absorbing intermediate appears in a time that is at least as short as the experimental resolution (about 6 psec) and decays with a life time of about 30 nsec. The extremely fast risetime supports the hypothesis that prelumirhodopsin is the product of the primary photoprocess.