Search results for "Darkness"
showing 10 items of 60 documents
Electrophysiological evidence for circadian rhythmicity in a mammalian pineal organ
1980
Long-term electrophysiological recordings from the guinea-pig pineal organ show that three types of intrinsic cells can be distinguished: (i) Cells showing constant firing rates over periods of up to 24 hours. (ii) Cells which are highly active during the day and show a low firing rate during the night. (iii) Cells which exhibit low activity during the day and enhanced activity during the night; these cells can be strongly inhibited by 1 min of light given during the night. Both the light- and darkness-activated cells show activity patterns which closely follow season-dependent differences in day- and night-lengths. In addition, both cell types show an oscillatory pattern in maintained acti…
Mouse photoreceptor synaptic ribbons lose and regain material in response to illumination changes
2004
Abstract Chemical synapses equipped with ribbons are tonically active, high-output synapses. The ribbons may play a role in the trafficking of synaptic vesicles. Recent findings in retinal rod cells of BALB/c mice indicate that ribbons are large and smooth in the dark phase, and, due to the formation and release of protrusions, small during the light phase. As a consequence of these changes, ribbons may traffick fewer vesicles in the light than in the dark phases. The aim of the present study was to find out whether the above ribbon changes in this mouse strain are strictly illumination-dependent and which signalling processes may be involved. Here, we show that ribbons form protrusions and…
Rat pineal arylalkylamine-N-acetyltransferase: cyclic AMP inducibility of its gene depends on prior entrained photoperiod.
2003
The nocturnal biosynthesis of melatonin in the rat pineal depends on strongly enhanced expression of the enzyme N-acetyltransferase [arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AA-NAT); EC 2.3.1.87]. AA-NAT transcription is stimulated during darkness by adrenergic inputs to the pineal from the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Nocturnal activation of the AA-NAT promotor following stimulation of pinealocyte adrenoceptors involves cAMP-dependent stimulation of protein kinase A (PKA). The nocturnal rise in AA-NAT depends on the lighting conditions. As compared with light/dark (LD) 12:12, the delay between dark onset and the nocturnal rise in AA-NAT is shortened under long photoperiods and prolonged under…
The effects of short pulses of light at night on numbers of pineal "synaptic" ribbons and serotonin N-acetyltransferase activity in male Sprague-Dawl…
1986
To characterize further the functionally enigmatic "synaptic" ribbons (SR) of the mammalian pineal gland and to study possible relationships to melatonin synthesis, in the present investigation rats were exposed to short pulses of light at night when both SR numbers and serotonin N-acetyltransferase (NAT) activity are high in comparison to day-time values. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were killed at 13:00 and 01:00 h, respectively, and at 01:10 and 02:00 h after exposure to light for 10 and 60 min, respectively. The pineals were rapidly taken out and cut sagittally in half. One half was processed for electron-microscopic quantitation of SR numbers and the other half for NAT determinations. It w…
Transcriptional regulation of nucleoredoxin-like genes takes place on a daily basis in the retina and pineal gland of rats.
2015
AbstractThe nucleoredoxin-like gene Nxnl1 (Txnl6) and its paralogue Nxnl2 encode the rod-derived cone viability factors (RdCVF and RdCVF2), which increase the resistance to photooxidative damage and have therapeutic potential for the survival of cones in retinitis pigmentosa. In this study, the transcription of Nxnl genes was investigated as a function of the day/night cycle in rats. The transcript levels of Nxnl1 and Nxnl2 were seen to display daily rhythms with steadily increasing values during the light phase and peak expression around dark onset in preparations of whole retina, photoreceptor cells and—but only in regard to Nxnl1—in photoreceptor-related pinealocytes. The cycling of Nxnl…
Modulation of Structural Heterogeneity Controls Phytochrome Photoswitching
2019
Phytochromes sense red/far-red light and control many biological processes in plants, fungi, and bacteria. Although crystal structures of dark and light adapted states have been determined, the molecular mechanisms underlying photoactivation remains elusive. Here we demonstrate that the conserved tongue region of the PHY domain of a 57kDa photosensory module of Deinococcus radiodurans phytochrome, changes from a structurally heterogeneous dark state to an ordered light activated state. The results were obtained in solution by utilizing a laser-triggered activation approach detected on the atomic level with high-resolution protein NMR spectroscopy. The data suggest that photosignaling of phy…
The Role of the Night & the Northern Lights in the Production of a New Touristic Imaginary of the North
2015
International audience; Our work is based on empirical observation: the development of a tourist offer proposing to observe the northern lights in some Nordic areas. We place these developments in a broader dynamic of changes in our relationship to the night. These changes find a translation in a tourism that takes the night and its environmental resources as objects. This communication focuses on a particular object of these tourist dynamics: the northern lights. We formulate the following hypothesis: the erosion by the urban lighting of the “natural” night and of the accessibility to its “environmental resources” (as the starry sky, for example) provides an opportunity for some areas of l…
Vertical ground reaction force measurements and video measurements provide comparable estimates of distance moved by mice during artificial light and…
2011
Video-based measures of spontaneous activity of rodents are of interest in studying, e.g. physiology. However, video-based tracking methods typically require light. The purpose of the present study was to develop a video based method for tracking movements of mice during a dark period. The method was applied in comparing the dark and light period activities of mice. Ten male mice were used in the present study. The activity of the animals was monitored simultaneously with video and ground reaction force (GRF) recordings during consecutive 12h periods of artificial light and dark. Texture based background subtraction method was used to track the mouse from the video recording, while the weig…
Über die wirkung des phytochroms beim laubmooskallus II. Sauerstoffmetabolismus und acetylcholinwirkung
1974
Summary The oxygen metabolism is a good parameter for the determination of rapid responses of green moss callus to light. We measured the oxygen uptake with the Warburg method and polarographically with a Clark electrode and the YSI-oxygen monitor. The exposure of dark grown moss callus to red light (5–20 min) induced a rapid increase in O2-uptake after switching off the light. The respiration change depends on the exposure duration and the light intensity. During the first 2 or 3 h after irradiation with red light and with red-far red light, the rates of the O2-uptake show no differences but after this lag-phase the 2 curves are splitting. The respiration of the red irradiated cells remain…
The GTP- and Phospholipid-Binding Protein TTD14 Regulates Trafficking of the TRPL Ion Channel in Drosophila Photoreceptor Cells
2015
Recycling of signaling proteins is a common phenomenon in diverse signaling pathways. In photoreceptors of Drosophila, light absorption by rhodopsin triggers a phospholipase Cβ-mediated opening of the ion channels transient receptor potential (TRP) and TRP-like (TRPL) and generates the visual response. The signaling proteins are located in a plasma membrane compartment called rhabdomere. The major rhodopsin (Rh1) and TRP are predominantly localized in the rhabdomere in light and darkness. In contrast, TRPL translocates between the rhabdomeral plasma membrane in the dark and a storage compartment in the cell body in the light, from where it can be recycled to the plasma membrane upon subsequ…