Ligand control of g protein-coupled receptor activity: new insights

Human Blue Cone Opsin Regeneration Involves Secondary Retinal Binding with Analog Specificity

Human color vision is mediated by the red, green, and blue cone visual pigments. Cone opsins are G-protein-coupled receptors consisting of an opsin apoprotein covalently linked to the 11-cis-retinal chromophore. All visual pigments share a common evolutionary origin, and red and green cone opsins exhibit a higher homology, whereas blue cone opsin shows more resemblance to the dim light receptor rhodopsin. Here we show that chromophore regeneration in photoactivated blue cone opsin exhibits intermediate transient conformations and a secondary retinoid binding event with slower binding kinetics. We also detected a fine-tuning of the conformational change in the photoactivated blue cone opsin binding site that alters the retinal isomer binding specificity. Furthermore, the molecular models of active and inactive blue cone opsins show specific molecular interactions in the retinal binding site that are not present in other opsins. These findings highlight the differential conformational versatility of human cone opsin pigments in the chromophore regeneration process, particularly compared to rhodopsin, and point to relevant functional, unexpected roles other than spectral tuning for the cone visual pigments.

Beyond spectral tuning: human cone visual pigments adopt different transient conformations for chromophore regeneration

Human red and green visual pigments are seven transmembrane receptors of cone photoreceptor cells of the retina that mediate color vision. These pigments share a very high degree of homology and have been assumed to feature analogous structural and functional properties. We report on a different regeneration mechanism among red and green cone opsins with retinal analogs using UV-Vis/fluorescence spectroscopic analyses, molecular modeling and site-directed mutagenesis. We find that photoactivated green cone opsin adopts a transient conformation which regenerates via an unprotonated Schiff base linkage with its natural chromophore, whereas red cone opsin forms a typical protonated Schiff base. The chromophore regeneration kinetics is consistent with a secondary retinal uptake by the cone pigments. Overall, our findings reveal, for the first time, structural differences in the photoactivated conformation between red and green cone pigments that may be linked to their molecular evolution, and support the proposal of secondary retinal binding to visual pigments, in addition to binding to the canonical primary site, which may serve as a regulatory mechanism of dark adaptation in the phototransduction process.