The morphology of bacteriorhodopsin reconstituted into dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine and egg-phosphatidylcholine vesicles was observed by freeze-fracture electron microscopy. The rotational diffusion of bacteriorhodopsin at different concentrations of melittin was measured by observing flash-induced transient dichroism in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine vesicles. In the presence of melittin, bacteriorhodopsin molecules in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine vesicles were aggregated into large particles or patches, and the ability of rotational diffusion of bacteriorhodopsin in vesicles was decreased. This suggests that melittin produces its effect via direct electrostatic interaction with bacteriorhodopsin. Low temperature-induced aggregation of bacteriorhodopsin was also observed in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine vesicles. Low temperature may cause phase separation. Bacteriorhodopsin was also successfully reconstituted into egg-phosphatidylcholine vesicles, but low temperature-induced aggregation of bacteriorhodopsin in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine cannot appear in egg-phosphatidylcholine vesicles. This suggests that different lipids have different effects on bacteriorhodopsin in vesicles.
BR-D96N is a kind of genetically site-specific mutant of bacteriorhodopsin (BR) with obvious photochromic effect. Compared to the wild type BR, the lifetime of M state of BR-D96N is prolonged to several minutes so that the photochromic kinetics and the intermediates formation can be studied by the conventional spectra analysis. In the experiment, the absorption spectra of the sample at different time after light illumination are measured with spectrophotometer. By fitting and analyzing the variation of the spectra, we suppose there are three main states in the photochromic process, i.e. B state (light-adapted state), M state and D state (dark-adapted state). The absorption spectra of the B state, M state and D state are extracted from the experimental data based on this three-state model and the spectra at various time are fitted with the least square method. So, the variations of population percentages of the M state, B state and D state are obtained and the M state and B state lifetimes are estimated. In another way, from measuring the absorption dynamics at 407 nm and 568 nm, the M state and B state lifetimes are also obtained by two exponential data fitting, which give coincident results with those of the spectra analysis.
The optical storage characteristics of a new kind of organic photochromic material棗pyrrylfulgide were experimentally investigated in the established parallel optical data storage system. Using the pyrrylfulgide/PMMA film as a photon-mode recording medium, micro-images and encoded binary digital data were recorded, readout and erased in this parallel system. The storage density currently reaches 3?07 bit/cm2. The recorded information on the film can be kept for years in darkness at room temperature.
