Description
The Bacteriorhodopsin is a transmembrane protein that acts as a light-driven proton pump in Halobacterium salinarum, converting light energy into a proton gradient. BR functions as a pump of protons from the cytoplasm to the extracelullar space, in order to create a proton gradient. Afterwards, protons enter the cell again favourably, and the cell takes advantage of that by coupling to a reaction that synthesizes ATP. The energy required by BR is provided by green light. At the end of the process, the outcome is that the cell transformed energy from light into ATP, the energetic currency of the cell