An ab-initio molecular dynamics modeling of the primary photochemical event in vision

Abstract

In the process of vision, light stimuli are converted into neural information by a membrane protein called rhodopsin that initiates the transduction process. The primary photochemical event involves the photoconversion of rhodopsin into a metastable intermediate called bathorhodopsin [1,2]. The chromophore of rhodopsin is an 11-cis retinylidene prosthetic group covalently bound to the surrounding opsin protein via a protonated Schiff base (PSB) linkage to a specific lysine residue, Lys296 (Fig. 1). The absorption of light induces the isomerization of the 11-cis-retinal chromophore to an all-trans configuration in bathorhodopsin.KeywordsNuclear Magnetic ResonanceBond Length AlternationBond AlternationExperimental Chemical ShiftConjugation DefectThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.