The photochemical and subsequent thermal reactions of phoborhodopsin (pR490), which mediates the negative phototaxis (phobic reaction) of Halobacterium halobium, were investigated by low-temperature spectrophotometry. At room temperature, the absorption spectrum of pR490 displayed vibrational structure with a maximum at 490 nm and a shoulder at 460 nm, which were remarkably sharpened by cooling, resulting in the appearance of two well-separated peaks. On irradiation of pR490 at -170 degrees C, a photo-steady-state mixture composed of pR490 and two photoproducts, P520 and P480, was formed. P480 had an absorption maximum at 480 nm and thermally converted to pR490 above -160 degrees C, while P520 had an absorption maximum at 515 nm and thermally converted to P350, the next intermediate, above -60 degrees C. Above -30 degrees C, P350 was converted to P530, and then reverted to pR490. P520, P350, and P530 may correspond to K, M, and O intermediates of bacteriorhodopsin, respectively, on the basis of their absorption spectra, but the intermediates corresponding to L and N intermediates were not observed. On the basis of these results, a new scheme of the photoreaction cycle of pR490 was presented.