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Chlorophyll derivatives as visual pigments for super vision in the red

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Abstract

The primary event in vision is light-initiated activation of visual pigments. All visual pigments consist of the protein opsin bound to 11-cis-retinal and are responsible for initiating the transformation of light into an electrical signal. In a mouse model, we show that derivatives of chlorophyll can act as visual pigments initiating the transformation of light into an electrical signal and thus change the primary event in vision to initial activation of a chlorophyll derivative. Electroretinographic b-wave amplitudes recorded in response to red and blue light were two-fold greater in mice administered chlorin e6, which accumulated in photoreceptor outer segments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Ilyas Washington, Steffen Jockusch, Nicholas J. Turro & Koji Nakanishi

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10028, USA

    Jilin Zhou & Janet R. Sparrow

Authors
  1. Ilyas Washington
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  2. Jilin Zhou
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  3. Steffen Jockusch
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  4. Nicholas J. Turro
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  5. Koji Nakanishi
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  6. Janet R. Sparrow
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Correspondence to Ilyas Washington.

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Washington, I., Zhou, J., Jockusch, S. et al. Chlorophyll derivatives as visual pigments for super vision in the red. Photochem Photobiol Sci 6, 775–779 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1039/b618104j

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