Fusion of purple membranes triggered by immobilization on carbon nanomembranes

• René Riedel,
• Natalie Frese,
• Fang Yang,
• Martin Wortmann,
• Raphael Dalpke,
• Daniel Rhinow,
• Norbert Hampp and
• Armin Gölzhäuser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 93–101, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.8

• electron irradiation-induced cross-linking of a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 4′-nitro-1,1′-biphenyl-4-thiol (NBPT) and second, purple membrane (PM) containing genetically modified bacteriorhodopsin (BR) carrying a C-terminal His-tag. The NBPT-CNM was further modified to carry nitrilotriacetic acid

• ; electrophoretic sedimentation; proton pump; purple membrane; Introduction The so-called purple membrane (PM) has attracted large attention in the scientific literature after this light-driven proton pump was first discovered in the 1970s [1][2]. The membrane patches of about 1 µm in diameter, consisting of the

• electrons (SPECS flood gun) in high vacuum (10−7 mbar) using doses of 50 mC/cm2. The cross-linking of a NBPT SAM on gold on mica leads to an NBPT CNM. Preparation of PM Frozen wild-type (WT) and c-His-tagged purple membrane were thawed, vortexed and subsequently diluted to the desired optical density (OD