E. coli Expression and Purification of Microbial and Viral Rhodopsins

Abstract

Microbial rhodopsins have become an indispensable tool for neurobiology. Of thousands of identified microbial rhodopsins, a minute fraction has been studied so far and they have shown remarkable functional diversity suggesting more great promises that this large family holds. Effective production of recombinant microbial and viral rhodopsins is a prerequisite for the success of functional and structural studies of these proteins. Escherichia coli (E. coli) are suitable for high yield expression of many of microbial and viral rhodopsins and they facilitate rapid exploration of this large protein family.