Culture temperature affects the molecular motion of bacteriorhodopsin within the purple membrane

We measured the absorption anisotropies of bacteriorhodopsin (bR) within a purple membrane suspension after photo-excitation in the millisecond time range. The purple membranes used were isolated from Halobacterium salinarium grown at three different culture temperatures, 37.0, 43.0 and 47.5 degrees C. For the membranes from the 37.0 degrees C culture, the observed anisotropies at wavelengths of 410, 570 and 680 nm showed almost the same slow decay. The slow decaying of the anisotropies originated from the rotation of the membrane itself. Using the membranes from the 43.0 and 47.5 degrees C culture, however, we found that the anisotropy change varied at each wavelength measured. In these cases, it is shown from detailed data analysis that 1) the rotational motion of photo-intermediates within the membrane is more restricted than that of non-excited bR and 2) the distorted arrangements of the proteins within the membrane remain, even after photo-intermediates return to ground-state bR. This restricted motion is probably caused by the conformational changes in photo-intermediates, which prevent the rotation of the monomer protein and/or lead photo-intermediates to bind with neighboring proteins.