2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Molecular properties of visual pigments suitable for scotopic vision
| Project/Area Number |
25840120
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Animal physiology/Animal behavior
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| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
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| Keywords | 視細胞 / オプシン / 桿体 / 錐体 / アカハライモリ / ノックインマウス / ヤツメウナギ |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Firstly, to elucidate how the property of high thermal stability of vertebrate rhodopsins is acquired during the process of molecular evolution of visual pigments, we carried out physiological analyses on chicken green cone opsin knockin mice. We found that current fluctuation in darkness of homozygous rods was considerably higher than that of wild type rods, suggesting that thermal stability of the chicken green cone opsin is extremely lower than that of rhodopsin. Secondly, we carried out single-cell recordings from isolated retina of a dark-adapted lamprey. Sensitivity of the lamprey rods was about 30 times higher than that of lamprey cones and the kinetics in the rods were considerably slower than those of the cones as observed in other vertebrate animals. Finally, we have introduced DNA vectors to express mutant cone opsins in newt photoreceptors. We confirmed that the mutant cone opsins were ectopically expressed in the newt photoreceptors.
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| Free Research Field |
動物生理学
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