Retrograde intraciliary trafficking of opsin during the maintenance of cone-shaped photoreceptor outer segments of Xenopus laevis.

ABSTRACT: Photoreceptor outer segments (OSs) are essential for our visual perception, and take either rod or cone forms. The cell biological basis for the formation of rods is well established; however, the mechanism of cone formation is ill characterized. While Xenopus rods are called rods, they exhibit cone-shaped OSs during the early process of development. To visualize the dynamic reorganization of disk membranes, opsin and peripherin/rds were fused to a fluorescent protein, Dendra2, and expressed in early developing rod photoreceptors, in which OSs are still cone-shaped. Dendra2 is a fluorescent protein which can be converted from green to red irreversibly, and thus allows spatiotemporal labeling of proteins. Using a photoconversion technique, we found that disk membranes are assembled at the b

SUBMITTER: Tian G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4142104 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature