Apusomonad rhodopsins, a new family of ultraviolet to blue light absorbing rhodopsin channels

Apusomonads are a clade of understudied sediment-dwelling bacterivorous protists sister to Opisthokonta. Recently, apusomonads have been found to show a negative phototactic response to blue light. Here, by screening available apusomonad omics data we found genes of a distinct group of microbial rhodopsins, the ApuRs. ApuRs heterologously expressed in mammalian cells absorbed near-UV/violet or blue light, suggesting that ApuRs could be involved in apusomonads photoavoidance response. Electrophysiological measurements indicate that ApuRs are anion-selective rhodopsin channels which evolved independently of the family of channelrhodopsins widespread in other unicellular eukaryotes. Among the known rhodopsin channels, ApuRs collectively demonstrate the most blue-shifted absorption spectra. In ApuRs, the channel opening is triggered by photoisomerization of the retinal from its all-trans form to 13-cis and 11-cis forms. We found that intracellular proton transfer is involved in channel opening and determined the channels open/close kinetics. These findings expand our understanding of the photobiology of heterotrophic flagellates and showcase the significance of these organisms as a source of new rhodopsin families with unanticipated functions.