A Synthetic Phospholipid Derivative Mediates Ion Transport Across Lipid Bilayers

Inspired by the natural phospholipid structures for cell membrane, a synthetic phospholipid LC with an ion recognition group benzo-18-crown-6 (B18C6) moiety was prepared which has been demonstrated to be able to transport ions across the lipid bilayers. Fluorescent vesicle assay shows that LC has an excellent transport activity, and the EC50 value for K+ is 11.2 μM. The voltage clamp measurement exhibits regular square-like current signals with considerably long opening times, which indicates that LC achieves efficient ion transport through a channel mechanism and its single channel conductivity is 17 pS. Both of the vesicle assay and patch clamp tests indicate that LC has selectivity for Rb+, whose ionic radius is larger than the cavity of crown ether. It suggests that the sandwich interaction may play a key role in the ion transport across lipid bilayers. All these results help us to speculate that LC transports ions via a channel mechanism with a tetrameric aggregate as the active structure. In addition, LC had obvious toxicity to HeLa cells, and the IC50 was 100.0 μM after coculture for 36 h. We hope that this simple synthetic phospholipid will offer novel perspectives in the development of more efficient and selective ion transporters.

Ultrafast Backbone Protonation in Channelrhodopsin-1 Captured by Polarization Resolved Fs Vis-pump—IR-Probe Spectroscopy and Computational Methods

Channelrhodopsins (ChR) are light-gated ion-channels heavily used in optogenetics. Upon light excitation an ultrafast all-trans to 13-cis isomerization of the retinal chromophore takes place. It is still uncertain by what means this reaction leads to further protein changes and channel conductivity. Channelrhodopsin-1 in Chlamydomonas augustae exhibits a 100 fs photoisomerization and a protonated counterion complex. By polarization resolved ultrafast spectroscopy in the mid-IR we show that the initial reaction of the retinal is accompanied by changes in the protein backbone and ultrafast protonation changes at the counterion complex comprising Asp299 and Glu169. In combination with homology modelling and quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) geometry optimization we assign the protonation dynamics to ultrafast deprotonation of Glu169, and transient protonation of the Glu169 backbone, followed by a proton transfer from the backbone to the carboxylate group of Asp299 on a timescale of tens of picoseconds. The second proton transfer is not related to retinal dynamics and reflects pure protein changes in the first photoproduct. We assume these protein dynamics to be the first steps in a cascade of protein-wide changes resulting in channel conductivity.

Роль пьезоэффекта в аномальной зависимости проводимости гетероструктуры AlGaAs/GaAs с двумерным электронным газом от расстояния между контактами

The results of experimental studies of the conductivity of AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure with two-dimensional electron gas at temperatures of 10-300 K are presented. At low temperatures, with a decrease in the distance between the contacts to the structure from 100 to 20 µm, a resistance increase was observed. To explain this anomalous dependence, a numerical simulation of the piezoelectric effect in a semiconductor on the channel conductivity is carried out. It is shown that it is necessary to take into account the crystallographic orientation of the channel and the effect on its potential of remote piezo-charges.

Stochastic Resonance in Bioinspired Electronic Device Using Polymer Field Effect Transistors

Stochastic resonance (SR) phenomenon is emerged in organic field effect transistors (OFETs) using $\pi$-conjugated polymer, where application of external noise to the OFET system enhances signal/information processing performance which is often found in biological systems.The channel conductivity of the OFET is slightly increased by spin-coating using heated semiconductor polymer solution with heated glass substrate.In order to improve frequency responses of OFET, optimal width of the gate electrode is explored. Furthermore, it turns out that scratching and removing semiconductor film outside the source-drain electrodes and the channel enhances the On-Off current ratio of the device. These fabrication processes lead to steeper nonlinearity on the $I_{\rm DS}$ {\it vs.} $V_{\rm GS}$ curve, resulting in emergence of SR, which is fingerprinted in increase of correlation value between input and output signals with increase of intensity of external noise.