Spectral tuning of shortwave-sensitive visual pigments in vertebrates

Of the four classes of vertebrate cone visual pigments, the shortwave-sensitive SWS1 class shows some of the largest shifts in lambda(max), with values ranging in different species from 390-435 nm in the violet region of the spectrum to < 360 nm in the ultraviolet. Phylogenetic evidence indicates that the ancestral pigment most probably had a lambda(max) in the UV and that shifts between violet and UV have occurred many times during evolution. In violet-sensitive (VS) pigments, the Schiff base is protonated whereas in UV-sensitive (UVS) pigments, it is almost certainly unprotonated. The generation of VS pigments in amphibia, birds and mammals from ancestral UVS pigments must involve therefore the stabilization of protonation. Similarly, stabilization must be lost in the evolution of avian UVS pigments from a VS ancestral pigment. The key residues in the opsin protein for these shifts are at sites 86 and 90, both adjacent to the Schiff base and the counterion at Glu113. In this review, the various molecular mechanisms for the UV and violet shifts in the different vertebrate groups are presented and the changes in the opsin protein that are responsible for the spectral shifts are discussed in the context of the structural model of bovine rhodopsin.     

Kraus decomposition for chaotic environments

We consider a system interacting with a chaotic thermodynamic bath. We derive an explicit and exact Kraus operator sum representation (OSR) for the open system reduced density. The OSR preserves the Hermiticity, complete positivity and norm. We show that it is useful as a numerical tool by testing it against exact results for a qubit interacting with an isolated flawed quantum computer. We also discuss some interesting qualitative aspects of the OSR.     

The solid state 13C-NMR and 19F-NMR spectra of some graphite fluorides

The solid state ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of fluorinated graphites show two resonances, one of which is assigned to aromatic carbon and the other to aliphatic carbon. The resonances are very broad with the high-field resonance centered at about 35 ppm below tetramethylsilane (TMS) and a low-field resonance centered at about 160 ppm below tetramethylsilane. The high-field resonance is typical of an sp³-like carbon and the low-field resonance is assigned to sp²-like carbons. It is found that the aromatic resonance in graphite decreases with an increase in fluorination of the graphite fluorides examined in this study. The ¹⁹F nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of C₄F and CF₁ each show one resonance. The fluorine resonance in C₄F is 180 ppm above CFCI₃ whereas the fluorine resonance in CF₁ is 55 ppm above CFCI₃. These peaks are in the range for fluorine bonded to aromatic and aliphatic carbons, respectively.