Light-induced currents from oriented purple membrane

This thesis is a report on photocurrent measurements of purple membrane oriented in an polyacrylamide gel. In the first section, the photocurrent measuring system was frequency analyzed from DC to 100 MHz. The optimized conditions that can measure the photocurrent signal in the 70 ms to 32 ns range without any distortion were found. In the second section, the correlation of the microsecond photocurrent component with the optical intermediates of the photocycle of bacteriorhodopsin was studied. It was found that the rise phase of microsecond component of photocurrent is closely correlated with K-L optical transition and decay phase is closely correlated with L-M transition when the salt concentration is relatively high. This correlation holds through the entire pH range that the L-M transition can be observed and is not temperature dependent. In the third section, the effect of salt on the microsecond photocurrent component was studied. In the fourth section, the effect of pH buffers on the microsecond photocurrent component was studied. Through these studies, it was concluded that: (1) when the salt (or pH buffer) concentration is relatively high, the microsecond component represents a proton release signal; (2) when the salt (or buffer) concentration is relatively low, the microsecond photocurrent component represents a sum of proton release and metallic cations (or protonated pH buffer molecules) moving backwards in the direction opposite to that of the proton release. A counter current theory for the photocurrent was developed. Many characteristics of the proton pump of bacteriorhodopsin, which are difficult to study by other methods, were studied using the photocurrent measurement method.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biophysics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Liu, Su-Yi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ebrey, Thomas G.

• Biophysics, General

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1990 Liu, Su-Yi

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9021720
(UMI)AAI9021720

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/20356