Summary
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1.
Short-wavelength light produces prolonged changes in the ERG afterpotential and the size of the ERG response to a fixed testflash; these changes may be reversed at any time by long-wavelength light: this ‘blue/ orange adaptation’ is clearly separable from other components of light or dark adaptation (Fig. 3), and operates over a totally different time scale (Fig. 10a,b).
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2.
The amount of light required to produce a criterion change in the state of blue/orange adaptation of the eye is independent of the intensity or temporal pattern of the stimulus (Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and Table 2).
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3.
Recovery of sensitivity in darkness following an intense blue stimulus is extremely slow (hours); and at any time during the recovery of sensitivity, blue light will again diminish sensitivity or orange light restore it (Fig. 10a, b).
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4.
The response amplitude elicited by a testflash is highly negatively correlated with the size of the ERG afterpotential (a) during blue-adaptation (Figs. 1, 2, 3), (b) during the decline of the ERG afterpotential resulting from exposure of the blue-adapted eye to long-wavelength light (Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7), (c) during dark-recovery from blue-adaptation.
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5.
The data presented are consistent with the view that the adaptational changes described result from interconversions of R480 and M580; that the size of the prolonged ERG afterpotential is closely linked to the amount of M580 in R1−6 following transduction; that the effects observed in the ERG closely reflect events occurring across the transducing membranes of R1−6; and that there is a component of the membrane conductance of R1−6 that is correlated with the presence of M580.
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Richard Wright was supported by a postgraduate research studentship granted by the Science Research Council. We thank Brian Pennington and Maurice Dow who helped with the statistics and criticised the manuscript, and an anonymous referee who made a number of helpful suggestions.
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Wright, R., Cosens, D. Blue-adaptation and Orange-adaptation in white-eyedDrosophila: Evidence that the prolonged afterpotential is correlated with the amount of M580 in R1−6 . J. Comp. Physiol. 113, 105–128 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00610456
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00610456