Speaker : Dieter Krachtus Abstract: Introduction to protein structure and function on the process of dark-adaptation in bacteriorhodopsin. Bacteriorhodopsin is a light driven proton pump in the membrane of Halobacterium salinarium. Upon illumination a part of the protein bacteriorhodopsin which is termed retinal chnages its structure. This structural change is the starting point for the transmembrane proton transport. A second, thermal structural change of retinal takes place in the dark, which triggers no vectorial proton transport. This study on the process of dark-adaptation in bacteriorhodopsin describes this structural change of bacteriorhodopsin on an atomic level of detail.