The photoproducts of rhodopsin in the isolated retina of the frog

Obtaining absorbance spectra from turbid retinal cell and tissue suspensions - Beating the light-scatter problem

Light scattering and inability to uniformly expose the cuvette contents to an incident light beam are significant limitations of traditional spectrophotometers. The first of these drawbacks limits their usefulness in studies of turbid cellular and tissue suspensions; the second limits their use in photodecomposition studies. Our strategy circumvents both problems. Although we describe its potential usefulness in vision sciences, application of spherical integrating cuvettes has broad application. Absorbance spectra of turbid bovine rod outer segments and dispersed living frog retina were studied using a standard single-pass 1 cm cuvettes, or a spherical integrating cuvette (DeSa Presentation Chamber, DSPC). The DSPC was mounted on an OLIS Rapid Scanning Spectrophotometer configured to generate 100 spectral scans/sec. To follow rhodopsin bleaching kinetics in living photoreceptors, portions of dark-adapted frog retina were suspended in the DSPC. The incoming spectral beam at 2 scans/sec entered the chamber through a single port. Separate ports contained a 519 nm light emitting diode (LED), or window to the photomultiplier tube. The surface of the DSPC was coated with a highly reflective coating allowing the chamber to act as a multi-pass cuvette. The LED is triggered to flash and the PMT shutter temporarily closed during a "Dark-Interval" between each spectral scan. By interleafing scans with LED pulses, spectra changes can be followed in real time. Kinetic analysis of the 3-dimensional data was performed by Singular Value Decomposition. For crude bovine rod outer segment suspensions, the 1 cm single-pass traditional cuvette gave non-informative spectra dominated by high absorbances and Rayleigh scattering. In contrast, spectra generated using the DSPC showed low overall absorbance with peaks at 405 and 503 nm. The later peak disappeared with exposure to white light in presence of 100 mM hydroxylamine. For the dispersed living retinal, the sample was pulsed at 519 nm between the spectra. The 495 nm rhodopsin peak gradually reduced in size concomitant with the emergence of a 400 nm peak, probably representing Meta II. A conversion mechanism of two species, A → B with rate constant of 0.132 sec^-1 was fit to the data. To our knowledge this is the first application of integrating sphere technology to retinal spectroscopy. Remarkably, the spherical cuvette designed for total internal reflectance to produce diffused light was efffectively immune to light scattering. Furthermore, the higher effective path length enhanced sensitivity and could be accounted for mathematically allowing determination of absorbance/cm. The approach, which complements the use of the CLARiTy RSM 1000 for photodecomposition studies (Gonzalez-Fernandez et al. Mol Vis 2016, 22:953), may facilitate studies of metabolically active photoreceptor suspensions or whole retinas in physiological assays.

Rhodopsin, light-sensor of vision

The light sensor of vertebrate scotopic (low-light) vision, rhodopsin, is a G-protein-coupled receptor comprising a polypeptide chain with bound chromophore, 11-cis-retinal, that exhibits remarkable physicochemical properties. This photopigment is extremely stable in the dark, yet its chromophore isomerises upon photon absorption with 70% efficiency, enabling the activation of its G-protein, transducin, with high efficiency. Rhodopsin's photochemical and biochemical activities occur over very different time-scales: the energy of retinaldehyde's excited state is stored in <1 ps in retinal-protein interactions, but it takes milliseconds for the catalytically active state to form, and many tens of minutes for the resting state to be restored. In this review, we describe the properties of rhodopsin and its role in rod phototransduction. We first introduce rhodopsin's gross structural features, its evolution, and the basic mechanisms of its activation. We then discuss light absorption and spectral sensitivity, photoreceptor electrical responses that result from the activity of individual rhodopsin molecules, and recovery of rhodopsin and the visual system from intense bleaching exposures. We then provide a detailed examination of rhodopsin's molecular structure and function, first in its dark state, and then in the active Meta states that govern its interactions with transducin, rhodopsin kinase and arrestin. While it is clear that rhodopsin's molecular properties are exquisitely honed for phototransduction, from starlight to dawn/dusk intensity levels, our understanding of how its molecular interactions determine the properties of scotopic vision remains incomplete. We describe potential future directions of research, and outline several major problems that remain to be solved.

Structural and functional properties of metarhodopsin III: recent spectroscopic studies on deactivation pathways of rhodopsin

The activation of rhodopsin has been the focus of researchers over the past decades, revealing many aspects of the activation pathways of this prototypical G protein-coupled receptor on a molecular level, starting with the light-dependent isomerization of its retinal chromophore from 11-cis to all-trans and leading eventually to the large scale helix movements in the transition to the active receptor state, Meta II. Comparatively little is known, however, on the deactivation pathways of the light receptor, which represent essential steps in maintaining a functional photoreceptor cell. Rhodopsin's active receptor species, Meta II, decays by two fundamentally different pathways, either forming the apoprotein opsin by release of the activating all-trans retinal ligand from its binding pocket, or by a thermal isomerization of this ligand to a less activating species in the transition to metarhodopsin III (Meta III). Both decay products, opsin and Meta III, are largely inactive under physiological conditions, yet they do not restore the complete inactivity of the dark state. Although some properties of Meta III have been described already in the 1960s, its molecular nature and the pathways of its formation have remained rather obscure. In this review, we focus on recent studies from our laboratories, which have provided a major progress in our understanding of the Meta III deactivation pathway and its potential physiological roles. Using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) difference spectroscopy in combination with a variety of other spectroscopic and biochemical techniques and quantum chemical calculations, we have developed a general picture of the interplay between the retinal ligand and the receptor protein, which is compared to similar reaction mechanisms in invertebrate photoreceptors and microbial retinal proteins.

Retinol kinetics in the isolated retina determined by retinoid extraction and HPLC

Suzuki et al. [Vis. Res. 26, 425-9 (1986); Vis. Res. 28, 1061-70 (1988)] have described a formaldehyde-based (HCHO-based) extraction procedure that efficiently recovers 11-cis retinal initially present as rhodopsin chromophore in photoreceptor membranes. Using the isolated retina of the toad (Bufo marinus), we tested whether this procedure ('HCHO' method), in combination with a formaldehyde-free extraction procedure ('i/h' method) and the analysis of extracted retinoids by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), can account quantitatively for light-induced changes in retinoid levels and thus serve as an alternative to spectrophotometry for tracking the formation of all-trans retinol in this intact rod preparation. Initially dark-adapted retinas were incubated in bright light or in darkness and then analysed by homogenization and extraction using the HCHO and i/h methods. Combined data obtained using the two extraction procedures indicated a near-conservation of total retinoid recovered from dark-incubated and illuminated retinas, and thus accounted for light-induced changes in retinoid levels. The HCHO procedure, employing formaldehyde, isopropanol and hexane, was similar to that described by Suzuki et al. and recovered retinaldehydes including chromophoric 11-cis retinal. The i/h procedure utilized isopropanol and hexane and, unlike the HCHO method, efficiently recovered all-trans retinol. Illumination (onset at time zero) that produced an approximately exponential decline of 11-cis retinal (time constant of 24 s) led to an increase and then a gradual decline in all-trans retinal. The normalized peak level of all-trans retinal, representing about 0.54 of the total molar quantity of recovered retinoid, developed with illumination periods of 10-80 s. The normalized level of all-trans retinol reached approximately 0.3 in retinas illuminated for 1 min and, with longer illuminations (up to 30 min), exhibited an approximately exponential further growth to approximately 0.9 with a time constant of 9.2 min. The results indicate the workability of the HCHO and i/h extraction procedures for tracking the in situ conversion of all-trans retinal to all-trans retinol, a reaction thought to be important for both operation of the retinoid visual cycle and shut-off of the phototransduction cascade.

Longitudinal spread of adaptation in the rods of the frog's retina

1. The stimulus-response function of the red rods in the retina of the common frog (Rana temporaria) was determined in different adaptational states by measuring aspartate-isolated receptor responses. 2. Flash stimuli, background adaptations and bleaches were delivered through the same optical channel forming an oblique light-beam striking the receptor side of the isolated and flat-mounted retina at an angle of 10 degrees. 3. When the light was blue-green and optimally polarized the absorbance of the receptor layer was about 2, from which follows that 70-80% of the light was absorbed in the distal third of the rod outer segments, i.e. the exposure was local. Homogeneous exposures of the whole rod outer segments were obtained with orange and red lights. 4. Combinations of homogeneous and local stimuli with homogeneous and local adaptations were used to investigate the longitudinal spread of background, intermediate and opsin adaptation, i.e. the sensitivity-reducing effect of a background light, and the transient and permanent sensitivity losses following a bleach isomerizing 3.5-26% (usually 10%) of the rhodopsin in the retina. 5. The results obtained were related to predictions based both on the assumption that the adaptation effects spread longitudinally within the rod outer segments and the assumption that they are strictly confined to the disks absorbing the adapting lights. 6. These comparisons reveal that all three types of adaptation spread longitudinally. It is for instance clear that the sensitivity loss observed with homogeneous stimuli and local adaptation (as compared to homogeneous adaptation) is larger than that predicted by the non-spreading hypothesis. 7. The longitudinal spread of background adaptation is largely finished within 10 sec after turning on the background light, while an efficient spread of the intermediate adaptation effect may require minutes. 8. A background light decreasing the sensitivity by about one log unit decreases the time from flash to response maximum from 5 to 1 sec (small responses). Corresponding opsin adaptation effects are accompanied by less dramatic changes in response kinetics. 9. Independent of adaptation type - homogeneous or local, background, intermediate or opsin - it was found that local stimuli are less efficient that homogeneous stimuli in light-adapted retinae. This effect can be explained assuming that the sensitivity-reducing effects are pronounced in the distal than in the proximal parts of the rod outer segments. 10. The opsin adaptation effect following 10% local bleaches decreases the sensitivity to both homogeneous and local stimuli 2-3 times more than corresponding homogeneous bleaches. This means that the strength of the opsin effect is not related to the average percentage bleached but to the fraction bleached in the distal part of the rod, or generally to the fraction bleached in the most affected region. 11...

Intracellular recordings of rod responses during dark-adaptation

1. Dark-adaptation of rod photoreceptors has been studied in the isolated axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) retina by intracellular recordings. Rod responsiveness was greatly reduced immediately after a 30 sec partial bleach, but partially recovered with time in the dark. 2. In parallel spectrophotometric measurements using isolated retinas, regeneration of the rod pigment could not be detected after a 30 sec bleach. 3. During rod dark-adaptation, the response of a rod to a given stimulus increased in amplitude, duration, and rate of rise but did not recover completely to the dark-adapted values. Response latency was lengthened immediately after a bleach but ultimately returned to the dark-adapted level. 4. The time courses of dark-adaptation determined on the basis of the intensity of a stimulus needed to evoke a response having a criterion amplitude, a criterion duration, or a criterion rate of rise were similar. On the other hand changes in latency of the response and magnitude of the saturated amplitude followed different time courses. Change in log threshold was found to be related to change in saturated amplitude by an exponential function during dark-adaptation. 5. After bleaching 10% or less of the rod pigment, the kinetics of both recovery of log threshold and decrease in absorbance at 400 nm (metarhodopsin II+free retinal) could be described by two concurrent first-order processes having similar time constants. However, after bleaching more than 10% of the rod pigment, changes in sensitivity and absorbance did not follow parallel time courses. 6. Metarhodopsin III cannot be solely responsible for setting the axolotl rod sensitivity since rod thresholds decrease monotonically during dark-adaptation whereas meta III concentration reaches a peak 3 min after the bleach and decreases thereafter.

Kinetics of slow thermal reactions during the bleaching of rhodopsin in the perfused frog retina

1. Slow thermal reactions occurring in the rhodopsin rods of flash-irradiated frog retinas were investigated spectrophotometrically.2. Five substances were identified as reactants: metarhodopsin II, metarhodopsin III, all-trans-retinal, opsin, and all-trans-retinol.3. Quantitative analysis showed that the transition between these substances are not a series of three consecutive reactions.4. An alternative scheme, compatible with the results, consisted of four reactions and involved two parallel pathways for the decay of metarhodopsin II, viz. conversion into metarhodopsin III, and hydrolysis into retinal and opsin.5. The first-order rate constants for the four reactions were as follows: 1.4 x 10(-2) sec(-1) for the conversion of metarhodopsin II into metarhodopsin III; 7.9 x 10(-3) sec(-1) for the hydrolysis of metarhodopsin II; 1.4 x 10(-3) sec(-1) for the hydrolysis of metarhodopsin III; and 2.6 x 10(-3) sec(-1) for the reduction of retinal into retinol (21 degrees C).6. Two other four-parameter schemes involving an equilibrium between metarhodopsin II and metarhodopsin III were also considered. One was found to be incompatible with the results. The other, though adequate, did not describe the data as well as the model summarized in 4 and 5. It also had the peculiar property of requiring that two apparently independent parameters be equated.