Imaging the dynamic behaviour of individual retinal chromophores confined inside carbon nanotubes
Imaging the dynamic behaviour of individual retinal chromophores confined inside carbon nanotubes
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DOI：
10.1038/nnano.2007.187
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发表时间：
2007-07-01
影响因子：
38.3
通讯作者：
Iijima, Sumio
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Liu, Zheng;Yanagi, Kazuhiro;Iijima, Sumio
视网膜是一种存在于光感受器细胞中的分子，当它吸收光线时，会发生形状的变化。具体来说，在这个发色团中，碳碳双键的顺/反异构化启动了负责视觉的生化过程链（1-3）。在这里，我们获得了附着在c60分子上的视网膜发色团的单个结构异构体的原子分辨率图像，并使用高分辨率透射电子显微镜（HR-TEM）研究了它们在密闭空间内（即单壁碳纳米管内）的动态行为。亚秒时间分辨率的连续HR-TEM图像直接揭示了视网膜顺式和全反式的异构化，以及构象变化和保体积作用。这项工作开辟了在体外研究这些光敏分子在个体基础上的生物活性的可能性，这里描述的分子成像技术是一种通用的技术，可以应用于广泛的系统。
Retinal is the molecule found in photoreceptor cells that undergoes a change in shape when it absorbs light. Specifically, the cis/trans isomerization of a carbon-carbon double bond in this chromophore sets in motion the chain of biochemical processes responsible for vision(1-3). Here, we obtain atomically resolved images of individual structural isomers of the retinal chromophore attached to C 60 molecules and study their dynamic behaviour inside a confined space that is, inside single-walled carbon nanotubes-using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). Sequential HR-TEM images with sub-second time resolution directly reveal the isomerization between the cis and all-trans forms of retinal, as well as conformational changes and volume-conserving effects. This work opens up the possibility of investigating in vitro the biological activities of these photoresponsive molecules on an individual basis, and the molecular imaging technique described here is a general one that can be applied to a wide range of systems.