Diversification of non-visual photopigment parapinopsin in spectral sensitivity for diverse pineal functions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recent genome projects of various animals have uncovered an unexpectedly large number of opsin genes, which encode protein moieties of photoreceptor molecules, in most animals. In visual systems, the biological meanings of this diversification are clear; multiple types of visual opsins with different spectral sensitivities are responsible for color vision. However, the significance of the diversification of non-visual opsins remains uncertain, in spite of the importance of understanding the molecular mechanism and evolution of varied non-visual photoreceptions.

Results

Here, we investigated the diversification of the pineal photopigment parapinopsin, which serves as the UV-sensitive photopigment for the pineal wavelength discrimination in the lamprey, linking it w

SUBMITTER: Koyanagi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4570685 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature