Mixed quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical molecular dynamics simulations of biological systems in ground and electronically excited states

E Brunk, U Rothlisberger - Chemical reviews, 2015 - ACS Publications
The quantum nature of electrons and nuclei is manifested in countless biological events
including the rearrangements of electrons in biochemical reactions, electron and proton …

Theory and simulation of the ultrafast double-bond isomerization of biological chromophores

S Gozem, HL Luk, I Schapiro, M Olivucci - Chemical reviews, 2017 - ACS Publications
Ultrafast processes in light-absorbing proteins have been implicated in the primary step in
the light-to-energy conversion and the initialization of photoresponsive biological functions …

Retinal isomerization in bacteriorhodopsin captured by a femtosecond x-ray laser

P Nogly, T Weinert, D James, S Carbajo, D Ozerov… - Science, 2018 - science.org
INTRODUCTION Retinal is a light-sensitive protein ligand that is used by all domains of life
to process the information and energy content of light. Retinal-binding proteins are integral …

Serial femtosecond crystallography reveals that photoactivation in a fluorescent protein proceeds via the hula twist mechanism

A Fadini, CDM Hutchison, D Morozov… - Journal of the …, 2023 - ACS Publications
Chromophore cis/trans photoisomerization is a fundamental process in chemistry and in the
activation of many photosensitive proteins. A major task is understanding the effect of the …

Three-dimensional view of ultrafast dynamics in photoexcited bacteriorhodopsin

G Nass Kovacs, JP Colletier, ML Grünbein… - Nature …, 2019 - nature.com
Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is a light-driven proton pump. The primary photochemical event
upon light absorption is isomerization of the retinal chromophore. Here we used time …

Functions, therapeutic applications, and synthesis of retinoids and carotenoids

R Alvarez, B Vaz, H Gronemeyer, AR de Lera - Chemical reviews, 2014 - ACS Publications
Vitamin A (all-trans-retinol, 1, Figure 1) is considered the most multifunctional vitamin in the
human body. 1 It plays key roles in many physiological processes such as vision …

Retinal chromophore charge delocalization and confinement explain the extreme photophysics of Neorhodopsin

R Palombo, L Barneschi, L Pedraza-González… - Nature …, 2022 - nature.com
The understanding of how the rhodopsin sequence can be modified to exactly modulate the
spectroscopic properties of its retinal chromophore, is a prerequisite for the rational design …

Multiple retinal isomerizations during the early phase of the bestrhodopsin photoreaction

S Kaziannis, M Broser… - Proceedings of the …, 2024 - National Acad Sciences
Bestrhodopsins constitute a class of light-regulated pentameric ion channels that consist of
one or two rhodopsins in tandem fused with bestrophin ion channel domains. Here, we …

Map** atomic motions with ultrabright electrons: towards fundamental limits in space-time resolution

S Manz, A Casandruc, D Zhang, Y Zhong… - Faraday …, 2015 - pubs.rsc.org
The long held objective of directly observing atomic motions during the defining moments of
chemistry has been achieved based on ultrabright electron sources that have given rise to a …

First-principles characterization of the elusive I fluorescent state and the structural evolution of retinal protonated Schiff base in bacteriorhodopsin

JK Yu, R Liang, F Liu, TJ Martínez - Journal of the American …, 2019 - ACS Publications
The conversion of light energy into work is essential to life on earth. Bacteriorhodopsin (bR),
a light-activated proton pump in Archae, has served for many years as a model system for …