Zebrafish melanopsin

Bellingham J, Whitmore D, Philp AR, Wells DJ, Foster RG 2002 Zebrafish melanopsin isolation, tissue localisation and phylogenetic position. Mol Brain Res 107 128-136 Berson DM, Dunn FA, Takao M 2002 Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock. Science 295 1070-1073... 

Foster That s true, and potentially very interesting. On the topic of missing potential candidates. Greg Cahill told me that he has failed to find zebrafish melanopsin in the zebrafish databases, despite the fact we have just isolated and published the full sequence (Bellingham et al 2002). I suspect there could be some very interesting opsin-like molecules lurking undiscovered. 

Ahmad M, Grancher N, Heil M et al 2002 Action spectrum for cryptochrome-dependent hypocotyl growth inhibition in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol 129 774-785 Bellingham J, Whitmore D, Philp AR, Wells DJ, Foster RG 2002 Zebrafish melanopsin isolation, tissue localisation and phylogenetic position. Brain Res Mol Brain Res 107 128-136 Crawford BH 1949 The scotopic visibility function. Proc Phys Soc Lond B62 321—334 Miyashita Y, Moriya T, Yamada K et al 2001 The photoreceptor molecules in Xenopus tadpole tail fin, in which melanophores exist. Zool Sci 18 671-674 Wald G 1945 The spectral sensitivity of the human eye a spectral adaptometer. J Opt Soc Am 35 187... 

Foster Yes. I think if we are going to understand what melanopsin is doing a comparative approach will be valuable, and this is why Mark Hankins and I have started to work on zebrafish in parallel with mice. Although the transgenics and gene manipulation is not as sophisticated in fish, there are other things that can be done, particularly at the electrophysiological level. As I discussed in the presentation, Mark Hankins and I are keen to pursue this approach. 

F>mlap You showed data on melanopsin expression from zebrafish, indicating that there is a lot in the eye, a little in the brain and virtually nothing anywhere else. 

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