Photoreceptive membrane protein rhodopsins of Asgard archaea

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  • Inoue K
    The Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo

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Rhodopsins are photoreceptive membrane proteins using retinal chromophore. Two large families of rhodopsins, animal and microbial rhodopsins, were known so far, and they are used by diverse animals and microorganisms, respectively. In contrast, Asgard archaea are living prokaryotes which is being considered to be closest to the last common ancestor between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and they were not thought to use light for their survival. However, we have recently discovered many rhodopsins in their metagenome-assembled genomes. In particular, one of them, schizorhodopsin, is revealed to be a new rhodopsin family which functions as a light-driven inward proton pump. In this review, we will introduce the history of rhodopsins and our studies on the rhodopsins of Asgard archaea.

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