Abstract

We propose to investigate visual transduction in isolated retinas from humans and the monkey Macaca fascicularis. The overall aims are twofold: a) to elucidate the laws that govern the conversion of light to neural signals, and b) to clarify the molecular mechanism of this conversion. By making electrical recordings from single photoreceptor cells we will approach the following questions: 1. How do human rods respond t light and adapt in backgrounds? What are their spectral sensitivities? 2. What are the spectral sensitivities and response properties of human blue cones? 3. What are the kinetics of changes in intracellular Ca++ concentration in primate photoreceptors, and how do these changes regulate transduction? 4. What is the rate of spontaneous activation of primate cone pigments in darkness? 5. By what mechanisms do the proteins of the """"""""red"""""""" and """"""""green"""""""" cone pigments regulate light absorption in the 11-cis retinal chromophore? 6. What are the photosensitivities of the three cone pigments? 7. What is the organization of the cone inputs within the receptive fields of ganglion cells in the primate retina? Information on these points will improve our understanding of human vision and its disturbances in disease.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01EY005750-06
Application #
3261196
Study Section
Visual Sciences A Study Section (VISA)
Project Start
1985-04-01
Project End
1995-03-31
Budget Start
1990-04-01
Budget End
1991-03-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
1990
Total Cost
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
Stanford University
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
800771545
City
Stanford
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94305

  Publications

Burns, Marie E; Mendez, Ana; Chen, Ching-Kang et al. (2006) Deactivation of phosphorylated and nonphosphorylated rhodopsin by arrestin splice variants. J Neurosci 26:1036-44
Makino, Clint L; Dodd, R L; Chen, J et al. (2004) Recoverin regulates light-dependent phosphodiesterase activity in retinal rods. J Gen Physiol 123:729-41
Burns, Marie E; Mendez, Ana; Chen, Jeannie et al. (2002) Dynamics of cyclic GMP synthesis in retinal rods. Neuron 36:81-91
Mendez, A; Burns, M E; Sokal, I et al. (2001) Role of guanylate cyclase-activating proteins (GCAPs) in setting the flash sensitivity of rod photoreceptors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98:9948-53
Baylor, D A; Burns, M E (1998) Control of rhodopsin activity in vision. Eye (Lond) 12 ( Pt 3b):521-5
Sung, C H; Makino, C; Baylor, D et al. (1994) A rhodopsin gene mutation responsible for autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa results in a protein that is defective in localization to the photoreceptor outer segment. J Neurosci 14:5818-33
Raport, C J; Lem, J; Makino, C et al. (1994) Downregulation of cGMP phosphodiesterase induced by expression of GTPase-deficient cone transducin in mouse rod photoreceptors. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 35:2932-47
Meister, M; Pine, J; Baylor, D A (1994) Multi-neuronal signals from the retina: acquisition and analysis. J Neurosci Methods 51:95-106
DeVries, S H; Baylor, D A (1993) Synaptic circuitry of the retina and olfactory bulb. Cell 72 Suppl:139-49
Baylor, D (1992) Transduction in retinal photoreceptor cells. Soc Gen Physiol Ser 47:151-74

Showing the most recent 10 out of 21 publications