Bacteriorhodopsin(BR)exhibits,as a membrane protein in Halobacterium salinarum,unique photoresponsive behaviors,and shows promise as a functional information material.A new mutant of BR with the 96th aspartic acid replaced by valine(BR-D96V)was obtained and then a composite film of BR-D96V in a synthetic polymer matrix was prepared in this research.The mutant BR-D96V was expressed in a bacterio-opsin deficient halobacterial strain(L33)by gene engineering.Although valine is very hydrophobic,this point mutant keeps the basic biological activities,namely,photoelectric and photochromic responses.Nevertheless,the lifetime of M intermediate in the BR mutant is nearly two orders of magnitude longer than that of wild-type BR in neutral aqueous solution,which benefits its potential application as an information material.The M lifetime is further significantly prolonged after embedding BR-D96V into poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA).It was also found that BR-D96V is very sensitive to water content in comparison with wild-type BR and another BR mutant.
