By engineering a microbial rhodopsin, Archaerhodopsin-3 (Arch), to bind a synthetic chromophore, merocyanine retinal, in place of the natural chromophore all-trans-retinal (ATR), we generated a protein with exceptionally bright and unprecedentedly red-shifted near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence. We show that chromophore substitution generates a fluorescent Arch complex with a 200-nm bathochromic e...

A broadband, femtosecond transient circular dichroism (TRCD) spectrometer has been developed and tested in the wavelength range from 350 to 700 nm. The spectrometer uses a femtosecond probe white light with well-defined circular polarization. The latter is modulated by the polarization of a narrowband seed pulse. We have implemented a dual-beam probe geometry with phase-locked detection techniq...

Exposure of human erythrocytes to elevated intracellular calcium causes fragments of the cell membrane to be shed as microvesicles. This study tested the hypothesis that microvesicle release depends on microscopic membrane physical properties such as lipid order, fluidity, and composition. Membrane properties were manipulated by varying the experimental temperature, membrane cholesterol content...

The title merocyanine-type mol-ecule, C(21)H(22)N(2)O(5)·2H(2)O, crystallizes in a zwitterionic form and has an E configuration at the styryl C=C bond. The styryl part of the mol-ecule and the indolium ring are slightly twisted and form a dihedral angle of 13.4 (1)°. The 1.274 (3) Å C-O bond length in the phenolate fragment is the longest among similar mol-ecules. Hydrogen bonds between solvent...