Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: McIsaac RS
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4246972 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20140825 36
Microbial rhodopsins are a diverse group of photoactive transmembrane proteins found in all three domains of life. A member of this protein family, Archaerhodopsin-3 (Arch) of halobacterium Halorubrum sodomense, was recently shown to function as a fluorescent indicator of membrane potential when expressed in mammalian neurons. Arch fluorescence, however, is very dim and is not optimal for applications in live-cell imaging. We used directed evolution to identify mutations that dramatically improv ...[more]