Rhodopsins

Two molecules of vitamin A are formed from one molecule of -carotene. Vitamin A crystallizes in pale yellow needles m.p. 64 C. It is optically inactive. It is unstable in solution when heated in air, but comparatively stable without aeration. Vitamin A is manufactured by extraction from fish-liver oils and by synthesis from / -ionone. The role of vitamin A in vision seems to be different from its systemic function. See also relincne and rhodopsin. 

There has been extensive work done on myoglobin, haemoglobin, Cytocln-ome-c, rhodopsin and bacteriorhodopsin. In fact, there are literally hundreds of articles on each of the above subjects. Flere we will consider haemoglobin [12]. The first tliree of these examples are based on the protohaeme unit, shown in figure Bl.2.10. 

Shreve A P and Mathies R A 1995 Thermal effects in resonance Raman-scattering—analysis of the Raman intensities of rhodopsin and of the time-resolved Raman-scattering of bacteriorhodopsin J. Phys. Chem. 99 7285-99... 

Schoenlein R W, Peteanu LA, Mathies R A and Shank C V 1991 The first step in vision femtosecond isomerization of rhodopsin Sc/ence 254 412-15... 

Szundi I, Lewis J W and Kliger D S 1997 Deriving reaction mechanisms from kinetic spectroscopy. Application to late rhodopsin intermediates Blophys. J. 73 688-702... 

The G-proteins are heterotrimers made of three families of subunits, a, P, and y, which can interact specifically with discrete regions on G-protein-coupled receptors. This includes most receptors for neurotransmitters and polypeptide hormones (see Neuroregulators). G-protein-coupled receptors also embrace the odorant receptor family and the rhodopsin-linked visual cascade. 

The distribution of rods and cones is shown in Figure 3b centered about the fovea, the area of the retina that has the highest concentration of cones with essentially no rods and also has the best resolving capabiUty, with a resolution about one minute of arc. The fovea is nominally taken as a 5° zone, with its central 1° zone designated the foveola. There are about 40 R and 20 G cones for each B cone in the eye as a whole, whereas in the fovea there are almost no B cones. A result of this is that color perception depends on the angle of the cone of light received by the eye. The extremely complex chemistry involved in the stimulation of opsin molecules, such as the rhodopsin of the rods, and the neural connections in the retinal pathway are well covered in Reference 21. 

Given the difficulty of obtaining three-dimensional crystals of membrane proteins, it is not surprising that the electron microscope technique is now widely used to study large membrane-bound complexes such as the acetylcholine receptor, rhodopsin, ion pumps, gap junctions, water channels and light-harvesting complexes, which crystallize in two dimensions. 

Protein lateral motion is much slower than that of lipids because proteins are larger than lipids. Also, some membrane proteins can diffuse freely through the membrane, whereas others are bound or anchored to other protein structures in the membrane. The diffusion constant for the membrane protein fibronectin is approximately 0.7 X 10 cmVsec, whereas that for rhodopsin is about 3 X 10 cmVsec. 

E. G protein-conpled receptors /3-Adrenergic receptor kinase (BARK) Rhodopsin kinase II. Ser/Thr/Tyr protein kinases MAP kinase kinase (MAPK kinase) —TEY— phosphorylation by... 

FIGURE 18.36 The incorporation of retinal into the light-sensitive protein rhodopsin involves several steps. All- ram-retinol is oxidized by retinol dehydrogenase and then iso-merized to ll-cis-retinal, which forms a Schiff base linkage with opsin to form light-sensitive rhodopsin. 

Metarhodopsin 11 is then recycled back into rhodopsin by a multistep sequence involving cleavage to all-traws-retinal and cis-trans isomerization back to 11-ris-retinal. 

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