Bacteriorhodopsin as an Example of a Light‐Driven Proton Pump

Abstract Apart from the long known visual pigments, another retinal protein complex exists in nature, viz. bacteriorhodopsin from halobacteria. In contrast to the visual pigments such as the rhodopsins, which act as light sensors in the eye, bacteriorhodopsin actually transforms light energy. This energy conversion is connected with the asymmetric incorporation of bacteriorhodopsin in the lattice structure of the purple membrane which forms patches on the cell surface of halobacteria. Alongside the chlorophyll system, the purple membrane system represents the second light energy conversion principle to be discovered in living nature. Bacteriorhodopsin acts as a light‐driven proton pump or as the main component of such a pump system. Absorption of light triggers off a cycle of reactions coupled with the spatially oriented uptake and release of a proton. In the intact cell an electrochemical gradient is thus built up across the cell membrane of the bacterium in which part of the absorbed light energy is stored and which is not dependent upon redox processes as in the case of respiration or photosynthesis. This electrochemical gradient can supply the energy required for ATP synthesis in the cell; a reversible proton‐translocating ATPase serves as catalyst system.