Abstract
The purpose of photoreceptors is the conversion of light into an electrical signal that controls the release of transmitter (glutamate) and thereby initiates a chain of physiological responses in other retinal neurons. The first step in the transduction cascade is the absorption of a photon by rhodopsin. Rhodopsin is mainly located in the plasma membrane of disks in the outer segment and consists of the chromophore 11-cis-retinal linked to the heptahelical protein opsin via a Schiff base to a lysin. Absorption of a photon isomerizes retinal to the all-trans-conformation and converts rhodopsin to metarhodopsin II. Metarhodopsin II activates a cGMP-cleaving phosphodiesterase (PDE) via a specific G-protein (transducin). As a result of these enzymatic reactions the intracellular cGMP concentration is lowered and cGMP dissociates from the binding sites of the cGMP-dependent channels in the plasma membrane of the outer segment. The cGMP-dependent kation channels are open when the cGMP concentration in the photoreceptor is high in darkness. The channels close when the cGMP-level is lowered upon illumination and the inward current driven by a sodium-potassium pump in the inner segment is stopped. Interruption of this inward current, which is carried by sodium and calcium ions hyperpolarizes the membrane.
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Schmidt, KF., Nöll, G.N. (1995). Nitric Oxide in Amphibian Photoreceptors. In: Weissman, B.A., Allon, N., Shapira, S. (eds) Biochemical, Pharmacological, and Clinical Aspects of Nitric Oxide. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1903-4_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1903-4_11
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