Dark-adaptation in frog rods: changes in the stimulus-response function

Relief of opsin desensitization and prolonged excitation of rod photoreceptors by 9-desmethylretinal

The 9-methyl group of 11-cis-retinal plays a crucial role in photoexcitation of the visual pigment rhodopsin. A hydrogen-substituted analogue, 11-cis-9-desmethylretinal, combines with opsin to form a pigment that produces abnormal photoproducts and diminished activation of the GTP-binding protein transducin in vitro. We have measured the formation of this analogue pigment in bleached salamander rods and determined the size and shape of its quantal response. In addition, we have characterized the influence of opsin and newly formed analogue pigment on the quantal response to native porphyropsin. We find that, as 11-cis-9-desmethylretinal combines with opsin in bleached rods, the amplitude of the quantal response from residual native pigment is elevated by approximately 7.5-fold to 0.15 +/- 0.09 pA, a value close to the amplitude of the quantal response before bleach (0.31 +/- 0.10 pA). When activated by light, the new analogue pigment produces a quantal response that is approximately 30-fold smaller and decays approximately 5 times more slowly than that of native pigment in unbleached cells. We conclude that the 9-methyl group of retinal is not critical for conversion of opsin to its nondesensitizing state but that it is critical for the normal processes of activation and deactivation of metarhodopsin that give rise to the quantal response.

Movement of retinal along cone and rod photoreceptors

Single isolated photoreceptors can be taken through a visual cycle of light adaptation by bleaching visual pigment, followed by dark adaptation when supplied with 11-cis retinal. Light adaptation after bleaching is manifested by faster response kinetics and a permanent reduction in sensitivity to light flashes, presumed to be due to the presence of bleached visual pigment. The recovery of flash sensitivity during dark adaptation is assumed to be due to regeneration of visual pigment to pre-bleach levels. In previous work, the outer segments of bleached, light-adapted cells were exposed to 11-cis retinal. In the present work, the cell bodies of bleached photoreceptors were exposed. We report a marked difference between rods and cones. Bleached cones recover sensitivity when their cell bodies are exposed to 11-cis retinal. Bleached rods do not. These results imply that retinal can move freely along the cone photoreceptor, but retinal either is not taken up by the rod cell body or retinal cannot move from the rod cell body to the rod outer segment. The free transfer of retinal along cone but not along rod photoreceptors could explain why, during dark adaptation in the retina, cones have access to a store of 11-cis retinal which is not available to rods. Additional experiments investigated the movement of retinal along bleached rod outer segments. The results indicate that retinal can move along the rod outer segment, but that this movement is slow, occurring at about the same rate as the regeneration of visual pigment.

Noncovalent occupancy of the retinal-binding pocket of opsin diminishes bleaching adaptation of retinal cones

Bright light bleaches visual pigment and leads to a persistent desensitization of isolated rod and cone photoreceptors called bleaching adaptation. Bleaching adaptation results from the combined effects of pigment depletion and adaptational modulation of certain cellular reactions in the visual transduction cascade. Here, we present evidence that in solitary cone photoreceptors isolated from the salamander retina, the latter effect is due to the presence of free opsin in the outer segment. Also, we demonstrate that this "opsin adaptation" can be reversed by treating the cells with synthetic retinoids similar to 11-cis retinal but having polyene chains too short to form protonated Schiff base attachments to opsin.

Sensitization of bleached rod photoreceptors by 11-cis-locked analogues of retinal

Photoactivation of rhodopsin initiates both excitation and adaptation in vertebrate rod photoreceptors. Bleaching of rhodopsin to free opsin and all-trans-retinal in isolated rods produces a stable desensitization (bleaching adaptation) that is much larger than expected from pigment depletion alone. In our experiments, a 93% bleach produced a 500-fold increase in the light intensity required for saturation of the light response. This component of adaptation was 32-fold larger than the 16-fold increase expected from pigment depletion alone. 11-cis-Retinal, when delivered to isolated rods from liposomes, combines with free opsin to form a bleachable photopigment that fully restores sensitivity. 11-cis-Locked analogues of retinal combine with opsin to form unbleachable pigments in isolated bleached rods from the tiger salamander. They restore sensitivity to a substantial (16- to 25-fold) but incomplete extent. The analogues apparently relieve a stable component of adaptation when they interact with opsin. Because these analogues do not detectably excite rods, the structural requirements of both retinal and opsin for the relief of adaptation are different from those of excitation. The biochemical basis of light adaptation resulting from pigment bleaching and the minimum structural requirements of retinal for its relief remain to be determined.

Temperature-dependence of rod photoresponses from the aspartate-treated retina of the frog (Rana temporaria)

The effects of temperature changes on rod photoresponses were studied by recording the aspartate-isolated mass receptor potential in the dark-adapted retina of the frog Rana temporaria. The amplitude of saturating responses, indicating the magnitude of the dark current, increased linearly with temperature in the measured range 6-26 degrees C, extrapolating to zero dark current at 0 degrees C. Sensitivity was maximal around 18 degrees C but the decrease towards lower temperatures was shallow. The results show that rod phototransduction in the frog Rana temporaria is adapted to lower temperatures than in the tropical toad Bufo marinus. Responses to dim flashes were, approximately up to peak, well fitted by the same 'independent activation' model with four delay stages as have been found to best describe current responses from single toad rods. The kinetics (reciprocal time-to-peak) showed Arrhenius-type temperature-dependence with apparent activation energy 12.4 kcal mol-1 and Q10 = 2.1.

Transient sensitivity reduction and biphasic photoresponses observed when frog retinal rods are oxidized

1. Rod photoresponses and the effects of oxidation have been studied by recording either the transretinal voltage in aspartate-treated retinas or the outer segment current of single rods. 2. Oxidizing conditions transiently decreased, reducing conditions increased sensitivity. 3. Biphasic photoresponses were seen when the level of oxidation was rising and also in some other sensitivity-depressing conditions. 4. A model is proposed which explains the biphasic responses in terms of sensitivity differences between the tip and the base of the rod outer segment.

Surround control of center adaptation in the receptive fields of frog retinal ganglion cells

The sensitivity and intensity-response [R(log I)] functions of the receptive field center were determined by extracellular recording from frog retinal ganglion cells. The object was to study the steady-state adapting effects of peripheral background patterns: steady annuli and spinning "windmills" of light. Steady annular backgrounds could not be shown to directly effect any change of center responsiveness, only an enhancement of late response components attributable to depression of surround sensitivity. Movement of a windmill pattern shifted R(log I) functions to higher log intensities and decreased the maximal number of spikes in the response, but did not depress the saturation level of the impulse frequency. Its action thus resembled direct light-adaptation of the center.

The stimulus-response functions of visual systems

Two commonly used forms of presenting photoreceptor functions are compared: the incident light function, which represents photoresponses as a function of the total light intensity (stimulus plus background), and the increment stimulus function, which represents photoresponses as a function of light increments. The changes in these two functions with increasing background light are analyzed. If the receptor adapts to light according to Weber's law, the changes are very similar. The increment stimulus functions are often adequate in studies of excitation and adaptation mechanisms, while the incident light functions are more explicit when interest is focused on contrast sensitivity.

Studies on the off-response of the rod photoreceptors in the isolated frog retina

Transretinal potential changes induced by a 30 sec exposure to 503 nm light were studied in the dark-adapted frog isolated retina. The retina was treated with aspartate and 0.5 mM Ba2+ to suppress the PII and slow PIII components of the electroretinogram, and therefore the response to the light stimulus consisted of the on-response (fast PIII response) and the off-response. The amplitude of the off-response was proportional to that of the on-response when the stimulus intensity was weak. The amplitude ratio of the off-response to the on-response was unaffected by partial bleachings of rhodopsin. In the presence of 700 nm background illumination, the amplitude of the on-response was decreased, whereas that of the off-response was increased. The amplitude of the off-response increased to about four-fold that of the original response at 3 hr after turning on the background illumination, but the effects of 480 nm background light were less remarkable. Both the on- and off-response, however, had a peak spectral sensitivity at about 500 nm, regardless of the presence of background light. From these findings, it was suggested that the red rods contribute to the development of the off-response, but the cones would also contribute through small focal gap junctions between the cones and the red rods.

Rhodopsin and visual adaptation: analysis of photoreceptor thresholds in the isolated skate retina

Photoreceptor thresholds in the isolated retina of the skate, determined by extracellular measurement of the photoreceptor potential during periods of light and dark adaptation, were analyzed in relationship to prevailing states of the visual pigment. The starting assumption of the analysis is that relative levels of three forms of the pigment molecule [native rhodopsin (R), a photoactivated intermediate (R*), and bleached pigment (B)] govern (quasi-) stable levels of threshold measured (a) during exposure of the retina to background light of fixed incident intensity (Ib), and (b) after irradiation that bleaches a defined fraction (B) of the rhodopsin. It is shown that experimental data are described well by the equation It/ It0 = (1 - B)-1 X F X (1 + 0(3)B), where F = [1 + 0(1)Ib(1 - B) + 0(2)B]. In this equation, It/ It0 is the relative threshold for detection of a test flash; (1 - B) approximates the relative efficiency of quantum capture; and 0(1) - 0(3) are constants. For values of 0(1) - 0(3) yielding an optimal fit to experimental data, log (It/ It0 ) approximately log F over a broad range of values of Ib and B. It is further shown that the algebraic form of the term F in the above equation is consistent with the predictions of a (steady-state) model for the role of the pigment molecule in photoreceptor adaptation. The model proposes that R* and B desensitize the photoreceptor by acting (in qualitatively similar fashion) to reduce the availability of E, an intracellular substance whose activation supports generation of the flash response. Results of the analysis are discussed in relation to the Dowling- Rushton equation (Dowling, 1960, 1963; Rushton , 1961), and to the results of more recent studies examining light and dark adaptation.

Rhodopsin photoproducts and the visual response of vertebrate rods

Flash responses of the photoreceptors in the isolated, all-rod retina of the skate were recorded extracellularly during exposure of the retina to relatively weak background light of fixed intensity. Under conditions expected to yield approximately constant levels of (previously) bleached visual pigment and transient bleaching intermediates, (quasi-)steady-state, increment receptor thresholds were examined in relation to the prevailing extent of rhodopsin bleaching. The results indicate that, at least for moderate bleaches, the change in log threshold associated with prior bleaching becomes smaller with increasing value of background intensity. This behavior of the increment threshold data is discussed in the context of a recent model (Pepperberg, 1984; Vision Res. 24, 357-366) linking values of photoreceptor threshold during light and dark adaptation with states of the visual pigment molecule.

Desensitization of skate photoreceptors by bleaching and background light

Through extracellular measurements of photoreceptor responses to flashed stimuli, we examined how the bleaching of rhodopsin affects increment receptor threshold in the isolated retina of the skate (Raja oscellata and R. erinacea). Both initially unbleached and previously bleached photoreceptors, when exposed to full-field luminous backgrounds of fixed intensity, attain approximately stable levels of increment threshold that vary with the intensity of the background light. Values of stabilized increment thresholds measured after various extents of bleaching (less than approximately 50%), when plotted against background intensity in log-log coordinates, tend to converge with increasing intensity of the background; this relationship of the increment threshold functions resembles that which Blakemore and Rushton (1965b) found to describe the transient effect of bleaching on psychophysical increment threshold for the human rod mechanism. Our data are consistent with the possibility that related photochemical processes govern the stabilized levels of receptor sensitivity exhibited by the isolated retina (a) during steady illumination and (b) long after substantial bleaching.

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...