2014
Kinetics of Thermal Activation of an Ultraviolet Cone Pigment
Mooney V, Sekharan S, Liu J, Guo Y, Batista V, Yan E. Kinetics of Thermal Activation of an Ultraviolet Cone Pigment. Journal Of The American Chemical Society 2014, 137: 307-313. PMID: 25514632, DOI: 10.1021/ja510553f.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsTransmembrane helix 6UV pigmentsUnprotonated Schiff baseVisual pigmentsCone pigmentsDim-light visionExtracellular loop 2Vertebrate visual pigmentsMolecular evolutionUltraviolet pigmentsOpsin proteinHelix 6Retinyl chromophoreLoop 2UV cone pigmentBovine rhodopsinRod pigmentRhodopsinHydrogen bonding networkSalt bridgeIonone ringPigmentsSchiff base chromophoreSteric restraintsActivation
2013
Spectral Tuning of Ultraviolet Cone Pigments: An Interhelical Lock Mechanism
Sekharan S, Mooney V, Rivalta I, Kazmi M, Neitz M, Neitz J, Sakmar T, Yan E, Batista V. Spectral Tuning of Ultraviolet Cone Pigments: An Interhelical Lock Mechanism. Journal Of The American Chemical Society 2013, 135: 19064-19067. PMID: 24295328, PMCID: PMC4536979, DOI: 10.1021/ja409896y.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsUV pigmentsCone pigmentsSpectral tuningActivation of rhodopsinAncestral pigmentMolecular evolutionVertebrate visionMutagenesis studiesPhotoreceptor rhodopsinMolecular levelStructural rearrangementsUnprotonated Schiff baseTransmembraneTM6PigmentsRhodopsinMutationsEssential componentRetinyl chromophoreHydrogen bonding networkMutantsTM2Structural modelPhysiologicalRearrangement
2012
The Active Site of Melanopsin: The Biological Clock Photoreceptor
Sekharan S, Wei J, Batista V. The Active Site of Melanopsin: The Biological Clock Photoreceptor. Journal Of The American Chemical Society 2012, 134: 19536-19539. PMID: 23145979, DOI: 10.1021/ja308763b.Peer-Reviewed Original Research
2010
Discrimination of Saturated Aldehydes by the Rat I7 Olfactory Receptor
Kurland M, Newcomer M, Peterlin Z, Ryan K, Firestein S, Batista V. Discrimination of Saturated Aldehydes by the Rat I7 Olfactory Receptor. Biochemistry 2010, 49: 6302-6304. PMID: 20608641, PMCID: PMC2912408, DOI: 10.1021/bi100976w.Peer-Reviewed Original Research
2004
QM/MM Study of Energy Storage and Molecular Rearrangements Due to the Primary Event in Vision
Gascon J, Batista V. QM/MM Study of Energy Storage and Molecular Rearrangements Due to the Primary Event in Vision. Biophysical Journal 2004, 87: 2931-2941. PMID: 15339806, PMCID: PMC1304767, DOI: 10.1529/biophysj.104.048264.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsMolecular rearrangementQuantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) hybrid methodsEnergy storageQM/MM studyPolyene chainEnergy storage mechanismElectronic excitation energiesHigh-resolution structural dataBovine visual rhodopsinMolecular structureMM studyNet positive chargePrimary photochemical eventSchiff baseC13 positionSchiff base linkageStorage mechanismSteric interactionsTrans productsSteric constraintsPreferential senseFirst-principles understandingPositive chargePhotochemical eventsStructural data