PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - José Flores-Uribe
AU  - Gur Hevroni
AU  - Rohit Ghai
AU  - Alina Pushkarev
AU  - Keiichi Inoue
AU  - Hideki Kandori
AU  - Oded Béjà
TI  - Heliorhodopsins are absent in diderm (Gram-negative) bacteria: Some thoughts and possible implications for activity
AID  - 10.1101/356287
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 356287
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/06/26/356287.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/06/26/356287.full
AB  - Microbial heliorhodopsins are a new type of rhodopsins with an opposite membrane topology compared to type-1 and −2 rhodopsins, currently believed to engage in light sensing. We determined their presence/absence is monoderms and diderms representatives from the Tara Oceans and freshwater 25 lakes metagenomes. Heliorhodopsins were absent in diderms, confirming our previous observations in cultured Proteobacteria. Based on these observations, we speculate on the putative role of heliorhodopsins in light-driven transport of amphiphilic molecules.