The retina of the eye is a sheet of tissue containing the photoreceptor cells. Within these cells is a biochemical photopigment that is sensitive to light. The light-sensitive component belongs to a class of vitamin-A related structures called retinoid. Retinoid is synthesized elsewhere in the body, transported in the blood to the eye, and taken up and stored in the retina. The biochemical binding mechanisms for these transfers are important to understand in order to clarify metabolism and photoreception in the retina. This project uses the system of a highly visual invertebrate species, the octopus, to begin biochemical and molecular biological studies on the localization of binding sites and sites of synthesis of proteins and compounds important to the function of the intracellular matrix in the retina. These studies will provide novel data to compare with work on the vertebrate retina that should give new insights into photoreceptor function. The Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) component here also allows exploitation of this simple invertebrate system for giving valuable research opportunities to undergraduates, particularly for the minority students enrolled here.
