First Author | Chen CK | Year | 2010 |
Journal | J Neurosci | Volume | 30 |
Issue | 4 | Pages | 1213-20 |
PubMed ID | 20107049 | Mgi Jnum | J:157689 |
Mgi Id | MGI:4436783 | Doi | 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4353-09.2010 |
Citation | Chen CK, et al. (2010) Background light produces a recoverin-dependent modulation of activated-rhodopsin lifetime in mouse rods. J Neurosci 30(4):1213-20 |
abstractText | The Ca(2+)-binding protein recoverin is thought to regulate rhodopsin kinase and to modulate the lifetime of the photoexcited state of rhodopsin (Rh*), the visual pigment of vertebrate rods. Recoverin has been postulated to inhibit the kinase in darkness, when Ca(2+) is high, and to be released from the disk membrane in light when Ca(2+) is low, accelerating rhodopsin phosphorylation and shortening the lifetime of Rh*. This proposal has remained controversial, in part because the normally rapid turnoff of Rh* has made Rh* modulation difficult to study in an intact rod. To circumvent this problem, we have made mice that underexpress rhodopsin kinase so that Rh* turnoff is rate limiting for the decay of the rod light response. We show that background light speeds the decay of Rh* turnoff, and that this no longer occurs in mice that have had recoverin knocked out. This is the first demonstration in an intact rod that light accelerates Rh* inactivation and that the Ca(2+)-binding protein recoverin may be required for the light-dependent modulation of Rh* lifetime. |