Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock

Light synchronizes mammalian circadian rhythms with environmental time by modulating retinal input to the circadian pacemaker-the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus. Such photic entrainment requires neither rods nor cones, the only known retinal photoreceptors. Here, we show that retinal ganglion cells innervating the SCN are intrinsically photosensitive. Unlike other ganglion cells, they depolarized in response to light even when all synaptic input from rods and cones was blocked. The sensitivity, spectral tuning, and slow kinetics of this light response matched those of the photic entrainment mechanism, suggesting that these ganglion cells may be the primary photoreceptors for this system.     

Detection of alpha-transducin in retinal rods but not cones

The distribution in chicken retina of the alpha subunit of transducin, the guanine nucleotide--binding protein that couples light-dependent activation of rhodopsin with activation of guanosine 3',5'-monophosphate phosphodiesterase, was determined with the aid of a specific antiserum. alpha-Transducin was found in rod photoreceptor cells but was not detected in cones. These results show that rods and cones differ with respect to alpha-transducin content and suggest that the processes of phototransduction may differ correspondingly in rods and cones.     

Modulation of rod-cone coupling by light

Although electrical coupling between rods and cones in the retina has been assumed to be static, it has now been shown that rod-cone coupling can be strengthened by light. Increment threshold measurements reveal that cone input to rods increases progressively as background light becomes brighter. Current injection into cones produces larger responses in adjacent rods in the presence of background light than in darkness. Weak coupling under dark-adapted conditions facilitates synaptic transmission of small rod signals, and strong coupling under light-adapted conditions enhances transmission of large cone signals.     

Light adaptation in cat retinal rods

It has long been an open question whether individual rod receptors in the mammalian retina show any light adaptation. The prevailing evidence so far has suggested that these cells, unlike those in lower vertebrates, adapt little if at all. The experiments on cat rods reported here, however, indicate that this is not really true. Since the cone system in the cat retina has a fairly high light threshold, the rods also need to adapt so that they do not saturate with light before the cones fully take over vision at higher light intensities. In similar experiments, adaptation was found in rods of other mammalian species, including primates.     

Regulation of mammalian circadian behavior by non-rod, non-cone, ocular photoreceptors

Circadian rhythms of mammals are entrained by light to follow the daily solar cycle (photoentrainment). To determine whether retinal rods and cones are required for this response, the effects of light on the regulation of circadian wheel-running behavior were examined in mice lacking these photoreceptors. Mice without cones (cl) or without both rods and cones (rdta/cl) showed unattenuated phase-shifting responses to light. Removal of the eyes abolishes this behavior. Thus, neither rods nor cones are required for photoentrainment, and the murine eye contains additional photoreceptors that regulate the circadian clock.     

Topology of the outer segment membranes of retinal rods and cones revealed by a fluorescent probe

When N,N'-didansyl cystine binds to the cell membranes of vertebrate rods and cones its fluorescence efficiency increases about 20-fold. The entire outer segments of living cones become brilliantly fluorescent. Stained live rods, as well as most freshly detached outer segments, are only weakly fluorescent, but they become brightly fluorescent within a few seconds if their plasma membranes are osmotically ruptured. The difference in staining of rod and cones suggests that disk membranes of rods are not continuous with the plasma membranes are osmotically ruptured. The difference in staining of rod and cones plasma membrane on outer segments of photoreceptors in electrophysiological and biochemical experiments, and to study the infolding pattern of rod and cone disks.     

Visual pigment density in single primate foveal cones

The feasibility is demonstrated of microspectrophotometric studies on primate photoreceptors aligned at right angles to the test beam, rather than axially illuminated. Pigment densities, and hence absorption per unit thickness, are approximately equal in primate rods and foveal cones. These pigment densities are similar to those reported for frog rods and fish cones.     

Direct excitatory interactions between cones of different spectral types in the turtle retina

Cone linear sensitivities to red and green stimuli were measured intracellularly in the dark- and light-adapted turtle retina. Test flashes of small diameter were used to minimize horizontal cell feedback. Light adaptation was achieved with either green or red background illumination. The ratio of cone sensitivities to red and green light depended on the color of the background light and differed from the ratio measured in the dark. Electron microscope studies of Golgi-stained turtle cones revealed direct synaptic connections between red and green cones mediated by cone telodendria. These data indicate that the red cone photoresponse is not univariant as has been previously supposed and suggest that mixing of signals from different spectral classes of cones can occur via direct excitatory connections between cones.     

Iconic storage: the role of rods

The hypothesis that rods mediate iconic storage was tested by presenting letters of one color against a field of another. The colors were chosen to be discriminable only by the cones, only by the rods, or both. Under dark adaptation, the rods had little if any effect on partial-report advantage; however, they were important in determining the phenomenal persistence of the stimulus. Under light adaptation, the rods played no apparent role in either type of persistence.     

Retina: ultrastructural alterations produced by extremely low levels of coherent radiation

The effect of low levels of coherent radiation on the eye is not fully established, but is generally presumed to be noninjurious. Irradiation of the retina with a Q-switched ruby laser emitting low amounts of energy (0.1 percent probability of creating damage) consistently produces ultrastructural alterations in rods and cones. Outer segments of these cells are broken and disorganized and their lamellae are in disarray 1 day after such irradiation.     

Rod-cone interactions: different color sensations from identical stimuli

Different color sensations were generated by two areas in a complex scene, even though both areas sent to the eye the same 656-nanometer radiance that excited the long-wave cones and excited only the rods.     

Red-green cone interactions in the increment-threshold spectral sensitivity of primates

Threshold spectral sensitivity of primate eyes is the upper envelope of the sensitivity of three response channels. Sensitivity in the green and red channels is modeled as linear difference functions reflecting neural interaction between cones containing photopigments with 535- and 575-nanometer peaks. Sensitivity in the blue channel seems determined by a single class of cones containing a 445-nanometer photopigment.     

Hemichannel-mediated inhibition in the outer retina

An essential feature of the first synapse in the retina is a negative feedback pathway from horizontal cells to cones. Here we show that at this synapse, connexin26 forms hemichannels on horizontal cell dendrites near the glutamate release site of the cones. Blocking these hemichannels hyperpolarizes horizontal cells, modulates the Ca2+ channels of the cones, and abolishes all feedback-mediated responses. We propose a feedback mechanism in which the activity of the Ca2+ channels and the subsequent glutamate release of the cones are modulated by a current through these hemichannels. Because the current through the hemichannels depends on the polarization of the horizontal cells, their activity modulates the output of the cones.     

Opponent color cells in the cat lateral geniculate nucleus

A microelectrode survey of the cat lateral geniculate has uncovered an infrequent new type of lateral geniculate cell in layer B with "on" center responses to short wavelengths and "off" center responses to long wavelengths. The short wavelength responses are mediated by cones with peak sensitivity at about 450 nanometers, and the long wavelength responses by cones with peak sensitivity at 556 nanometers. Two of double opponent color cells also had double opponent features.     

The incremental threshold of the rod visual system and Weber's law

The incremental threshold of the isolated rod visual system is believed, under certain conditions, to obey Weber's law (that is, to increase in direct proportion to the intensity of the background). This relation was tested at several background wavelengths, over an intensity range for which the target was seen only by the rods. Although the slope on long-wavelength background approximates unity (that is, Weber's law on log-log coordinates), it averages less than 0.8 on short- and middle-wavelength backgrounds. This is the same value as that found for the thresholds of a typical, complete achromat--who lacks cone vision--regardless of background wavelength. These results force the conclusion that Weber's law for incremental threshold detection is achieved not by the rods alone but only by the rods acting together with the cones.     

东北云杉的地理变异规律

本文根据大、小兴安岭、长白山鱼鳞松的5400个针叶和180个球果的统计分析,讨论了其地理变异规律。随着纬度增加,球果增大,针叶长度增加。方差分析表明:大兴安岭和小兴安岭之间球果直径和长度的差异大于小兴安岭和长白山之间的差异,叶长度的差异则相反。球果大小沿纬度的变化可能与温度变化相关,叶长度及叶气孔线条数的变异可能与高山强烈的直接辐射及叶的强烈蒸腾有关。     

Multiple sensitive periods in the development of the primate visual system

Early in life, abnormal visual experience may disrupt the developmental processes required for the maturation and maintenance of normal visual function. The effects of retinal image deprivation (monocular form deprivation) on four psychophysical functions were investigated in rhesus monkeys to determine if the sensitive period is of the same duration for all types of visual information processing. The basic spectral sensitivity functions of rods and cones have relatively short sensitive periods of development (3 and 6 months) when compared to more complex functions such as monocular spatial vision or resolution (25 months) and binocular vision (greater than 25 months). Therefore, there are multiple, partially overlapping sensitive periods of development and the sensitive period for each specific visual function is probably different.     

A "D"-like antigen in rhesus red blood cells and in Rh-positive and Rh-negative red cells

A "D"-like antigen has been demonstrated in human and rhesus red cells. These red cells, as well as heat extracts of human blood (Rh-positive or Rh-negative), induce formation of "D"-like antibodies in guinea pigs. These antibodies, when exposed to rhesus red cells or to Rh-positive or Rh-negative red cells, yield eluates of "D"-like specificity.