Oded Béjà

The paper identifies and characterizes two novel bacterial schizorhodopsins from Antarctic sources, demonstrating their inward proton-pumping activity and revealing distinct evolutionary and functional features.

The paper identifies widespread xanthorhodopsin genes in cyanobacteria and characterizes a unique variant from an Antarctic cyanobacterium that binds hydroxylated lutein, enhancing light-harvesting efficiency in extreme environments.

This study shows that cyanophage NblA proteins negatively affect oceanic cyanobacterial photosynthesis by accelerating infection, degrading the phycobilisome, and reducing light harvesting efficiency.

The paper identifies a new family of rhodopsin channels in apusomonads that absorb ultraviolet to blue light and function as anion-selective channels involved in photoavoidance.

The paper uses a machine-learning model to predict red-shifted channelrhodopsin variants, identifying ChR024 with a maximum absorption wavelength of ~578 nm for optogenetics.

The paper reports light energy transfer from hydroxylated carotenoids to heimdallarchaeial rhodopsins in marine archaea, showing light-harvesting capabilities in archaea similar to bacterial rhodopsins.

This paper characterizes HulaCCR1, a novel BCCR from Lake Hula, showing the ETD motif and extended N/C-termini affect spectral tuning, gating, and membrane localization.

This study identifies viral Shemin pathway genes in bacteriophages that can functionally complement bacterial 5-ALA biosynthesis pathways.

The paper identifies a highly potassium-selective channelrhodopsin (WiChR) that enables efficient neuronal inhibition through two-photon optogenetics under low-light conditions.