The Journal of General Physiology
Sign up for e-mail content alerts
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents

This Article
Right arrow PDF (Full Text)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JGP
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tamura, T.
Right arrow Articles by Yau, K. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Tamura, T.
Right arrow Articles by Yau, K. W.
Social Bookmarking
 Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

The Journal of General Physiology, Vol 98, 95-130, Copyright © 1991 by The Rockefeller University Press


ARTICLES

Calcium feedback and sensitivity regulation in primate rods

T Tamura, K Nakatani and KW Yau
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205.

Membrane current was recorded from a single primate rod with a suction pipette while the cell was bath perfused with solutions maintained at a temperature of approximately 38 degrees C. A transient inward current was observed at the onset of bright illumination after briefly exposing the outer segment in darkness to Ringer's (Locke) solution containing 3- isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX), an inhibitor of cGMP phosphodiesterase. After briefly removing external Na+ from around the outer segment in darkness, a similar current was observed upon Na+ restoration in bright light. By analogy to amphibian rods, this inward current was interpreted to represent the activity of an electrogenic Na(+)-dependent Ca2+ efflux, which under physiological conditions in the light is expected to reduce the free Ca2+ in the outer segment and provide negative feedback (the "Ca2+ feedback") to the phototransduction process. The exchange current had a saturated amplitude of up to approximately 5 pA and a decline time course that appeared to have more than one exponential component. In the absence of the Ca2+ feedback, made possible by removing the Ca2+ influx and efflux at the outer segment using a 0 Na(+)-0 Ca2+ external solution, the response of a rod to a dim flash was two to three times larger and had a longer time to peak than in physiological solution. These changes can be approximately accounted for by a simple model describing the Ca2+ feedback in primate rods. The dark hydrolytic rate for cGMP was estimated to be 1.2 s-1. The incremental hydrolytic rate, beta*(t), activated by one photoisomerization was approximately 0.09 s-1 at its peak, with a time-integrated activity, integral of beta*(t)dt, of approximately 0.033, both numbers being derived assuming spatial homogeneity in the outer segment. Finally, we have found that primate rods adapt to light in much the same way as amphibian and other mammalian rods, such as showing a Weber-Fechner relation between flash sensitivity and background light. The Ca2+ feedback model we have constructed can also explain this feature reasonably well.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
J. Physiol.Home page
J. Fan, M. L Woodruff, M. C Cilluffo, R. K Crouch, and G. L Fain
Opsin activation of transduction in the rods of dark-reared Rpe65 knockout mice
J. Physiol., October 1, 2005; 568(1): 83 - 95.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
J. Physiol.Home page
S Nymark, H Heikkinen, C Haldin, K Donner, and A Koskelainen
Light responses and light adaptation in rat retinal rods at different temperatures
J. Physiol., September 15, 2005; 567(3): 923 - 938.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
JGPHome page
C. L. Makino, R.L. Dodd, J. Chen, M.E. Burns, A. Roca, M.I. Simon, and D.A. Baylor
Recoverin Regulates Light-dependent Phosphodiesterase Activity in Retinal Rods
J. Gen. Physiol., June 1, 2004; 123(6): 729 - 741.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Physiol. Rev.Home page
G. L. Fain, H. R. Matthews, M. C. Cornwall, and Y. Koutalos
Adaptation in Vertebrate Photoreceptors
Physiol Rev, January 1, 2001; 81(1): 117 - 151.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
J. Neurosci.Home page
D. M. Schneeweis and J. L. Schnapf
The Photovoltage of Macaque Cone Photoreceptors: Adaptation, Noise, and Kinetics
J. Neurosci., February 15, 1999; 19(4): 1203 - 1216.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]



  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents