Summary
Interesting optical and photochemical properties make microbial rhodopsin a promising biological material suitable for various applications, but the cost‐prohibitive nature of production has limited its commercialization. The aim of this study was to explore the natural biodiversity of Indian solar salterns to isolate natural bacteriorhodopsin (
BR
) variants that can be functionally expressed in
Escherichia coli
. In this study, we report the isolation, functional expression and purification of
BR
s from three pigmented haloarchaea, wsp3 (water sample Pondicherry), wsp5 and K1
T
isolated from two Indian solar salterns. The results of the 16S
rRNA
data analysis suggest that wsp3, wsp5 and K1
T
are novel strains belonging to the genera
Halogeometricum, Haloferax and Haloarcula
respectively. Overall, the results of our study suggest that 17 N‐terminal residues, that were not included in the gene annotation of the close sequence homologues, are essential for functional expression of
BR
s. The primary sequence, secondary structural content, thermal stability and absorbance spectral properties of these recombinant
BR
s are similar to those of the previously reported
Haloarcula marismortui
Hm
BRI
. This study demonstrates the cost‐effective, functional expression of
BR
s isolated from haloarchaeal species using
E. coli
as an expression host and paves the way for feasibility studies for future applications.