Proteorhodopsin, The Savior

“Make ATP when the sun shines”. Proteorhodopsin, the inspiration for our motto is a proton pump, native to marine bacteria, that uses light to generate proton gradient across the cell membrane. This leads to ‘Photophosphorylation’, as the proton gradient drives ATP-synthase to produce ATP. We have designed a cloning vector containing a Proteorhodopsin generator which confers a survival advantage to transformants in nutrient limiting conditions. And thus, we propose a novel screening technique that uses metabolic stress to screen for transformants in the presence of light. In addition, using the stress alleviation due to proteorhodopsin activity, we intend to enhance the yield of recombinant proteins and substrate consumption efficiency.