Abstract
The firefly squid, Watasenia scintillans, is the only animal known to possess a visual pigment in which the chromophore is 4-hydroxyretinal. This paper describes the absorbance spectrum and some properties of a synthetic "A4" visual pigment generated from bovine opsin and 4-hydroxyretinal. The absorbance spectrum of this pigment is compared with (a) bovine rhodopsin and (b) a rhodopsin template with the same λmax as the synthetic visual pigment. The A4 pigment is shown to have an absorbance spectrum that is almost identical to that of a rhodopsin template. It is also shown that the photosensitivity and thermal stability of the A4 pigment, dispersed in detergent micelles, is essentially similar to that of rhodopsin.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Journal | Vision Research |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 1992 |
| Externally published | Yes |