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Novel retinal photoreceptors

Abstract

The rod and cone cells of the retina are thought to mediate all of the light responses of the vertebrate eye. But here we show that salmon vertebrate ancient (VA) opsin forms a functional photopigment in vitro, and is expressed in a subset of retinal horizontal and amacrine cells in vivo. These results indicate that retinal photoreception is not restricted to just rod and cone cells.

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Figure 1: Difference-absorption spectrum of VA opsin.
Figure 2: Retinal expression of VA opsin.

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Soni, B., Philp, A., Foster, R. et al. Novel retinal photoreceptors. Nature 394, 27–28 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/27794

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