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Second Messengers in Invertebrate Phototransduction

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Transduction in Biological Systems

Abstract

In visual transduction, the absorption of light by specialized photoreceptor cells evokes a change in voltage across the plasma membrane termed the receptor potential. The problem of how this excitation process occurs has fascinated physiologists and biochemists for over 100 years. We now know that the process involves three fundamentally different phases. In the first phase, the absorption of light by the visual pigment, rhodopsin, is transduced into a change in the conformation of the visual pigment. This phase involves no amplification because one photon alters the conformation of only one rhodopsin molecule. In the second phase, chemical amplification produces a large change in the concentration of a second messenger. In the final phase, this concentration change is detected by membrane channels which gate the flow of ions, thereby generating the receptor potential.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biologia, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Juan Bacigalupo

  2. Marshall University School of Medicine, Huntington, West Virginia, 25704, USA

    Edwin Johnson

  3. Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, 02254, USA

    Phyllis Robinson & John E. Lisman

Authors
  1. Juan Bacigalupo
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  2. Edwin Johnson
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  3. Phyllis Robinson
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  4. John E. Lisman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Estudios Científicos de Santiago, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Cecilia Hidalgo  & Enrique Jaimovich  & 

  2. Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Juan Bacigalupo

  3. University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Julio Vergara

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© 1990 Plenum Press, New York

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Bacigalupo, J., Johnson, E., Robinson, P., Lisman, J.E. (1990). Second Messengers in Invertebrate Phototransduction. In: Hidalgo, C., Bacigalupo, J., Jaimovich, E., Vergara, J. (eds) Transduction in Biological Systems. Series of the Centro de Estudios Científicos de Santiago. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5736-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5736-0_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-5738-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-5736-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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