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Visual phototransduction is the sensory transduction process of the visual system by which light is detected by photoreceptor cells (rods and cones) in the vertebrate retina.A photon is absorbed by a retinal chromophore (each bound to an opsin), which initiates a signal cascade through several intermediate cells, then through the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) comprising the optic nerve.
The visual cycle is a process in the retina that replenishes the molecule retinal for its use in vision.Retinal is the chromophore of most visual opsins, meaning it captures the photons to begin the phototransduction cascade.
The steps that apply to the phototransduction pathway from vertebrate rod/cone photoreceptors are: The Vertebrate visual opsin in the disc membrane of the outer segment absorbs a photon, changing the configuration of a retinal Schiff base cofactor inside the protein from the cis-form to the trans-form, causing the retinal to change shape.
The visual cycle is a circular enzymatic pathway, which is the front-end of phototransduction. It regenerates 11-cis-retinal. For example, the visual cycle of mammalian rod cells is as follows: all-trans-retinyl ester + H 2 O → 11-cis-retinol + fatty acid; RPE65 isomerohydrolases; [30]
However, to trigger the phototransduction cascade, the process that underlies the visual signal, the retinal must be bound to an opsin when it is isomerized. The retinylidene protein has a spectral sensitivity that differs from that of free retinal and depends on the opsin sequence.
The handedness of the spiral is robust and is guaranteed by the chirality of the cilia. The two cilia of green algae have different beat patterns and functions. In Chlamydomonas, the phototransduction cascade alters the stroke pattern and beating speed of the two cilia differentially in a complex pattern.
The opsin is only activated when 11-cis-retinal absorbs a photon of light and isomerizes to all-trans-retinal, [16] [17] the receptor activating form, [18] [19] causing conformal changes in the opsin, [18] which activate a phototransduction cascade. [20] Thus, a chemoreceptor is converted to a light or photo(n)receptor. [21]
This can be explained by the activation of PDE by free GDP-bound T α. PDE γ subunit affinity for GDP-bound T α, however, seems to be about 100-fold smaller than for GTP-bound T α. [17] The mechanism by which GDP-bound T α activates PDE remains unknown however, it is speculated to be similar to the activation of PDE by GTP-bound T α. [16]