Search results for " PHOTOTRANSDUCTION"
showing 8 items of 18 documents
Germline deletion of Cetn1 causes infertility in male mice
2013
Centrins are calmodulin-like Ca2+-binding proteins that can be found in all ciliated eukaryotic cells from yeast to mammals. Expressed in male germ cells and photoreceptors, centrin 1 (CETN1) resides in the photoreceptor transition zone and connecting cilium. To identify its function in mammals, we deleted Cetn1 by homologous recombination. Cetn1−/− mice were viable and showed no sign of retina degeneration suggesting that CETN1 is nonessential for photoreceptor ciliogenesis or structural maintenance. Phototransduction components localized normally to the Cetn1−/− photoreceptor outer segments, and loss of CETN1 had no effect on light-induced translocation of transducin to the inner segment.…
Cryptochrome in Sponges: A Key Molecule Linking Photoreception with Phototransduction
2013
Sponges (phylum: Porifera) react to external light or mechanical signals with contractile or metabolic reactions and are devoid of any nervous or muscular system. Furthermore, elements of a photoreception/phototransduction system exist in those animals. Recently, a cryptochrome-based photoreceptor system has been discovered in the demosponge. The assumption that in sponges the siliceous skeleton acts as a substitution for the lack of a nervous system and allows light signals to be transmitted through its glass fiber network is supported by the findings that the first spicules are efficient light waveguides and the second sponges have the enzymatic machinery for the generation of light. Now…
The giant spectrin βV couples the molecular motors to phototransduction and Usher syndrome type I proteins along their trafficking route.
2013
International audience; Mutations in the myosin VIIa gene cause Usher syndrome type IB (USH1B), characterized by deaf-blindness. A delay of opsin trafficking has been observed in the retinal photoreceptor cells of myosin VIIa-deficient mice. We identified spectrin bV, the mammalian b-heavy spectrin, as a myosin VIIa-and rhodopsin-interacting partner in photoreceptor cells. Spectrin bV displays a polarized distribution from the Golgi apparatus to the base of the outer segment, which, unlike that of other b spectrins, matches the trafficking route of opsin and other phototransduction proteins. Formation of spectrin bV-rhodopsin complex could be detected in the differentiating photoreceptors a…
Identification of Novel Molecular Components of the Photoreceptor Connecting Cilium by Immunoscreens
2002
Abstract The connecting cilium of photoreceptor cells is the only intracellular link between the morphologically, functionally and biochemically different compartments of the inner and outer segments. The non-motile modified cilium plays an important role in the organization and the function of photoreceptor cells, namely in delivery and turnover of enzymes and substrates of the visual transduction cascade, and the photosensitive membranes of the outer segment. The protein components of the cilium participate in the intracellular transport through the cilium, in the outer segment disk morphogenesis and in the maintenance of discrete membrane domains. In order to identify yet unknown cytoske…
Phosphodiesterase inhibition induces retinal degeneration, oxidative stress and inflammation in cone-enriched cultures of porcine retina.
2013
nherited retinal degenerations affecting both rod and cone photoreceptors constitute one of the causes 74 of incurable blindness in the developed world. Cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) is crucial in the 75 phototransduction and, mutations in genes related to its metabolism are responsible for different retinal 76 dystrophies. cGMP-degrading phosphodiesterase 6 (PDE6) mutations cause around 4e5% of the retinitis 77 pigmentosa, a rare form of retinal degeneration. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether phar- 78 macological PDE6 inhibition induced retinal degeneration in cone-enriched cultures of porcine retina 79 similar to that found in murine models. PDE6 inhibition was induced…
A study of the human rod and cone electroretinogram a-wave component
2009
The study of the electrical response of the retina to a luminous stimulus is one of the main fields of research in ocular electrophysiology. The features of the first component (a-wave) of the retinal response reflect the functional integrity of the two populations of photoreceptors: rods and cones. We fit the a-wave for pathological subjects with functions that account for possible mechanisms governing the kinetics of the photoreceptors. The paper extends a previous analysis, carried out for normal subjects, in which both populations are active, to patients affected by two particular diseases that reduce the working populations to only one. The pathologies investigated are Achromatopsia, a…
PCARE and WASF3 regulate ciliary F-actin assembly that is required for the initiation of photoreceptor outer segment disk formation
2020
Significance The photoreceptor outer segments are primary cilia, modified for phototransduction by incorporation of stacked opsin-loaded membrane disks that are continuously regenerated. This process is disrupted in several types of inherited retinal dystrophy, but the driving force remained unclear. We show that C2orf71/PCARE (photoreceptor cilium actin regulator), associated with inherited retinal dystrophy subtype RP54, efficiently recruits the Arp2/3 complex activator WASF3 to the cilium. This activates an actin dynamics-driven expansion of the ciliary tip, resembling membrane evagination in lamellipodia formation. Colocalization of this actin dynamics module to the base of the outer se…
Induced Night-Vision by Singlet-Oxygen-Mediated Activation of Rhodopsin
2019
In humans, vision is limited to a small fraction of the whole electromagnetic spectrum. One possible strategy for enhancing vision in deep-red or poor-light conditions consists of recruiting chlorophyll derivatives in the rod photoreceptor cells of the eye, as suggested in the case of some deep-sea fish. Here, we employ all-atom molecular simulations and high-level quantum chemistry calculations to rationalize how chlorin e6 (Ce6), widely used in photodynamic therapy although accompanied by enhanced visual sensitivity, mediates vision in the dark, shining light on a fascinating but largely unknown molecular mechanism. First, we identify persistent interaction sites between Ce6 and the extra…