ABSORBENCY SPECTRA AND MOLECULAR-STRUCTURE OF THE BLUE-SENSITIVE ROD VISUAL PIGMENT IN THE CONGER EEL (CONGER CONGER)

Authors
Citation
S. Archer et J. Hirano, ABSORBENCY SPECTRA AND MOLECULAR-STRUCTURE OF THE BLUE-SENSITIVE ROD VISUAL PIGMENT IN THE CONGER EEL (CONGER CONGER), Proceedings - Royal Society. Biological Sciences, 263(1371), 1996, pp. 761-767
Citations number
46
Categorie Soggetti
Biology
ISSN journal
09628452
Volume
263
Issue
1371
Year of publication
1996
Pages
761 - 767
Database
ISI
SICI code
0962-8452(1996)263:1371<761:ASAMOT>2.0.ZU;2-C
Abstract
The conger eel (Conger conger) is a nocturnal fish that can be found l iving in shallow coastal water and deep water down to 1000 m. The cong er eel has a pure rod retina with a visual pigment maximally sensitive to blue light around 487 nm. We have cloned and sequenced the opsin c DNA which is presumed to code for this visual pigment and have found i t to be highly homologous to the form of opsin that is expressed in ma ture, deep-living European eels (Anguilla anguilla). The opsin sequenc e information presented here provides additional evidence that specifi c amino acid sites are involved in the spectral tuning of this class o f blue-sensitive visual pigments.