This application's long term research objective is to contribute new information that will strengthen understanding of' the critical process of light and dark adaptation in the visual system especially in the context of specific new findings on the light regulation of rod synapse proteins. A principle aim of this research will be to identify gene products with specific relevance for light adaptation and potential significance for understanding the genetics and molecular biology of human retinal diseases that endanger vision. The experiments focus on extending and explaining the observation of unforeseen light regulated interactions between Phosducin and 14-3-3 in the rod synapse. The power of the experiments is amplified by the combined use of ERG recordings and protein chemical analyses on the same experimental subject. The experiments are further enhanced by the confinement powers of the rod ribbon synaptosome which can safely shelter and deliver for analysis an undiluted, unmixed population of rod synapse gene products through the maelstrom of retinal homogenization. The program tests a new hypothesis with definitive experiments. It is proposed that the light regulated interactions between Phosducin and 14-3-3, both having the capability to regulate glutamate release in the rod synapse. contribute an important term in the equation of rod sensitivity control and in the flow of information between the rod photoreceptor cell, the bipolar cells and higher order retinal neurons. The proposed experiments are the fruits of a multidisciplinary collaboration involving Departments of Biomedical Engineering (BU), Neurophysiology (Northeastern), and Computational Biology (Weizmann Institute).
| Chen, Jing; Yoshida, Tatsuro; Bitensky, Mark W (2008) Light-induced translocation of cyclic-GMP phosphodiesterase on rod disc membranes in rat retina. Mol Vis 14:2509-17 |
| Chen, Jing; Yoshida, Tatsuro; Nakano, Koichi et al. (2005) Subcellular localization of phosducin in rod photoreceptors. Vis Neurosci 22:19-25 |
