Investigation of structural change of purple membrane in storage by transmission electron microscope and atomic force microscope

The structural change of purple membrane during storage has been investigated by means of transmis sion electron microscope and atomic force microscope. It is found that many liposomes have spontaneously evolved from the purple membrane sheets isolated three years ago. The membrane proteins on the liposomes, bacteriorhodopsin, are still presented as trimers in 2-D hexagonal structure, which is the same as that in natural cell membrane. However, the cytoplasmic surface of purple membrane faced outside on the liposomes.