Near infrared Yb 3؉ vibronic sideband spectroscopy was used to characterize specific lanthanide binding sites in bacteriorhodopsin (bR) and retinal free bacteriorhodopsin (bO). The VSB spectra for deionized bO regenerated with a ratio of 1:1 and 2:1 ion to bO are identical. Application of a two-dimensional anti-correlation technique suggests that only a single Yb 3؉ site is observed. The Yb 3؉ binding site in bO is observed to consist of PO 2 ؊ groups and carboxylic acid groups, both of which are bound in a bidentate manner. An additional contribution most likely arising from a phenolic group is also observed. This implies that the ligands for the observed single binding site are the lipid head groups and amino acid residues. The vibronic sidebands of Yb 3؉ in deionized bR regenerated at a ratio of 2:1 ion to bR are essentially identical to those in bO. The other high-affinity binding site is thus either not evident or its f luorescence is quenched. A discussion is given on the difference in binding of Ca 2؉ (or Mg 2؉ ) and lanthanides in phospholipid membrane proteins.Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is the only protein in the purple membrane of the halophilic archaebacterium Halobacterium salinarium. This protein is capable of light-driven transmembrane-proton translocation during a specific photochemical cycle (1-3) involving a retinal chromophore in a protonated Schiff base linkage with the lysine residue Lys-216 (4-6).The binding of metal cations, specifically Ca 2ϩ and Mg 2ϩ , is now recognized as essential for the proper functioning of the proton pumping mechanism of bR (7,8). Removal of the cations by deionization or acidification shifts the absorption maximum of purple membrane to 604 nm (blue bR) (9, 10). The absorption maximum of native bR (560-570 nm) returns upon the addition of different metal cations (9, 10). The initial step in the bR photocycle involves the excitation of the retinal by absorption of a photon (11-15). This step is followed by isomerization of the initially all-trans retinal to form the 13-cis retinal (11-15). Thermal relaxation leads to several intermediates, the net result being translocation of a proton from the cytoplasmic to the extracellular side of the membrane. Eventually, bR returns to its ground state from which it can undergo another photocycle (11-15). While retinal photoisomerization takes place in blue bR, the M 412 intermediate is not formed and, thus, proton pumping does not occur (9, 10).The locations of the cation binding sites are still not well known. Stroud and colleagues (16,17) have observed several Pb 2ϩ binding sites in bR via x-ray diffraction. The ligands that bind the cations cannot be identified from such studies due to the present inability to form three-dimensional crystals of bR. To understand the role that these metal cations play in the function of bR, it is necessary to know the location of the cations in the protein and the chemical nature of the ligands that bind them. For Ca 2ϩ binding proteins, such as bR, the latter is difficult to probe becau...