Elucidation and regulation of signal-propagation mechanisms in receptor proteins

蛋白质在各种刺激下改变其构象。为了揭示诱导蛋白质构象变化的分子内相互作用，鉴定了细菌和动物视网膜中感光蛋白构象变化的氨基酸残基。基于这些发现，蛋白质的构象是由一个连接体机械控制的，它的长度通过光异构化而改变，以调节蛋白质的活性。

Proteins change their conformations in response to various kinds of stimuli. To reveal the intramolecular interaction that induces the protein conformational change, the amino acid residues which are responsible for the protein conformational changes of photoreceptor proteins in bacteria and animal retina were identified. Based on these findings, the protein conformation was mechanically controlled by a linker whose length is changed by photo-isomerization to regulate the activity of the protein.