Effects of various anions on the Raman spectrum of halorhodopsin

Resonance Raman experiments were conducted to probe and understand the effect of various anions on halorhodopsin. These included monoatomic anions Cl- and Br-, which bind to the so-called halorhodopsin binding sites I and II, and polyatomic anions NO3- and ClO4-, which bind to site I only. The two types of ions clearly show different effects on the vibrational spectrum of the chromophore. The differences are not localized to the Schiff base region of the molecule, but extend to the chromophore structure-sensitive fingerprint region as well. We find that the protonated Schiff base frequency is at 1,633 cm-1 for Cl- and Br- ions, as reported previously for Cl-. However, we find that two Schiff base frequencies characterize halorhodopsin upon binding of the polyatomic anions. One frequency lies at the same location as that found for the monoatomic anions and the other is at 1,645 cm-1. Halorhodopsin with bound NO3- and ClO4- thus may consist of two heterogeneous structures in equilibrium. This heterogeneity does not seem to correlate with a retinal isomeric heterogeneity, which we can also demonstrate in these samples. The results suggest that anions binding to site I do not bind to the Schiff base directly, but can influence chromophore and/or protein conformational states.