Vertebrate and invertebrate visual photoreceptors detect light with exquisite sensitivity and rapid kinetics. They can detect single photons and by adapting to background light respond to changes in illumination over broad ranges of intensity. This review outlines the quite different biochemical mechanisms by which vertebrate and invertebrate photoreceptors respond to light (Fig. 1). Photorecep...

Phosphorylation of light-activated rhodopsin by the retina-specific enzyme, rhodopsin kinase (RK), is the primary event in the initiation of desensitization in the visual system. RK binds to the cytoplasmic face of rhodopsin, and the binding results in activation of the enzyme which then phosphorylates rhodopsin at several serine and threonine residues near the carboxyl terminus. To map the RK ...

The fatty acid (FA) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22: 6n-3) is highly enriched in membrane phospholipids of the central nervous system and retina. Loss of DHA because of n-3 FA deficiency leads to suboptimal function in learning, memory, olfactory-based discrimination, spatial learning, and visual acuity. G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signal transduction is a common signaling motif in these ne...

the performance of olive stone activated carbon (osac) for sorption of cu2+, zn2+ and ni2+ ions was investigated via batch technique. osac materials were prepared under different physially activation conditions. olive stone waste was physically activated with n2 gas and steam gas at 900oc at 3.5h hold time (osac-3) was choice as the best one for cu2+, zn2+ and ni2+ removal. characterization for...

4(4-nitrophenyl-zao)-2-(2-methoxy phenimino)-phenol and its coordination compounds with ni(ii), cu(ii), co(ii) and fe(iii) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, ft-ir, far-ir, near ir, uv-vis, mass spectrometry and molar conductivity and their electrochemical behaviours are reported.