Spin-dependent electron transmission through bacteriorhodopsin embedded in purple membrane

Abstract

Spin-dependent photoelectron transmission and spin-dependent electrochemical studies were conducted on purple membrane containing bacteriorhodopsin (bR) deposited on gold, aluminum/ aluminum-oxide, and nickel substrates. The result indicates spin selectivity in electron transmission through the membrane. Although the chiral bR occupies only about 10% of the volume of the membrane, the spin polarization found is on the order of 15%. The electrochemical studies indicate a strong dependence of the conduction on the protein's structure. Denaturation of the protein causes a sharp drop in the conduction through the membrane.electron transfer | electrochemistry | magnetic effect | chirality T he role of the electron spin in chemistry and biology has been receiving much attention because of a plausible relation to electromagnetic field effects on living organisms (1), and due to the seemingly importance of the earth's magnetic field on birds and fish navigation (2). Part of the difficulty in studying the subject arises from the lack of a physical model that can rationalize these phenomena. Recently, the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect was observed in electron transmission and conduction through organic molecules (3). The spin selectivity was observed for photoelectron transmission through monolayers of double-stranded DNA adsorbed on gold (4). Another study discovered a spin dependence in the conduction through single molecules of double-stranded DNA. In this configuration, one end of the molecule was adsorbed on a Ni substrate, whereas the other was attached to a gold nanoparticle (5).The CISS effect may provide a novel approach for better understanding the role of electron spin in biological systems. The studies mentioned above led to several questions, including the actual role played by the gold substrate in the overall spinfiltering process. Gold exhibits a very large spin orbit coupling; hence, one may wonder whether gold itself affects the CISS phenomenon. In addition, the interface between gold and the thiol group, through which the molecules are attached to the gold, may play a role. Because many of the past studies were performed with DNA, an important question arises whether CISS is a general effect or possibly a special property of DNA. CISS was only observed for double-stranded DNA, whereas for single-stranded molecules, no spin selectivity was found. On the one hand, this was attributed to the lack of ordered monolayers (4, 6); on the other hand, a theoretical model, proposed to rationalize the CISS effect, predicted that a double-helix structure (7) was needed for CISS to occur, whereas other approaches do not emphasize this need (8). Finally, because many of the past studies were performed in vacuum or in ambient air, it is of importance to probe to what extent the effect persists in solutions, which are more relevant to biology. The present study aims at answering the above questions in an attempt to establish CISS as a general phenomenon.For the present study, we chose bacteriorhodopsin (...

Spin-dependent electron transport in protein-like single-helical molecules

“…Our results reveal that the α-helical protein is an efficient spin filter and the spin polarization is robust against the disorder. These results are in excellent agreement with recent experiments [Mishra D, et al (2013) S pintronics is a multidisciplinary field that manipulates the electron spin transport in solid-state systems and has been receiving much attention among the physics, chemistry, and biology communities (1-4). Recent experiments have made significant progress in this research field, finding that doublestranded DNA (dsDNA) molecules are highly efficient spin filters (5-7).…”

“…Very recently, spin-dependent electron transmission and electrochemical experiments were performed on bacteriorhodopsinan α-helical protein of which the structure is single helicalembedded in purple membrane which was physisorbed on a variety of substrates (17). It was reported by means of two distinct techniques that the electrons transmitted through the membrane are spin polarized, independent of the experimental environments, implying that this α-helical protein can exhibit the ability of spin filtering.…”

Spin filtering in all-electrical three-terminal interferometers

“…However, up to this point the hopping amplitudes between nearest-neighbor sites within the unit cell, described by the unitary matrices U n [Eq. (28)], are arbitrary, allowing e.g., for different atoms (or side groups) within the cell, as might be expected for realistic organic molecules.…”

Structure dependent spin selectivity in electron transport through oligopeptides

“…The CISS effect relates to the ability of chiral molecules to transmit electrons in a spin-selective manner, hence the molecules act as spin filters. 6,7 Several chiral molecular species including DNA, [8][9][10][11][12] oligopeptides, [13][14][15] bacteriorhodopsin (bR), 16,17 a chiral conductive polymer, 18 1, 2-diphenyl-1,2-ethanediol (DPED), 19 helicenes, 20 and recently chiral CdSe quantum dots 21 have demonstrated efficient spin filtering. The spin filtering ability can be tuned by various means, for example, by varying the length of the chiral molecule, 8,9,13 by exposure to light, 22 or by varying the temperature.…”