Photoreceptor physiology and evolution: cellular and molecular basis of rod and cone phototransduction.

ABSTRACT: The detection of light in the vertebrate retina utilizes a duplex system of closely related rod and cone photoreceptors: cones respond extremely rapidly, and operate at 'photopic' levels of illumination, from moonlight upwards; rods respond much more slowly, thereby obtaining greater sensitivity, and function effectively only at 'scotopic' levels of moonlight and lower. Rods and cones employ distinct isoforms of many of the proteins in the phototransduction cascade, and they thereby represent a unique evolutionary system, whereby the same process (the detection of light) uses a distinct set of genes in two classes of cell. The molecular mechanisms of phototransduction activation are described, and the classical quantitative predictions for the onset phase of the electrical response to ligh

SUBMITTER: Lamb TD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9790638 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature