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The Journal of Neuroscience, April 15, 2000, 20(8):2845-2851
Vertebrate Ancient-Long Opsin: A
Green-Sensitive Photoreceptive Molecule Present in Zebrafish Deep Brain
and Retinal Horizontal Cells
Daisuke
Kojima,
Hiroaki
Mano, and
Yoshitaka
Fukada
Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Graduate School of
Science, The University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
113-0033, and CREST, Japan Science and Technology Corporation,
Tokyo, Japan
Nonretinal/nonpineal photosensitivity has been found in the brain
of vertebrates, but the molecular basis for such a "deep brain"
photoreception system remains unclear. We conducted an extensive search
for brain opsin cDNAs of the zebrafish (Danio rerio), a
useful animal model for genetic studies, and we have isolated a partial
cDNA clone encoding an ortholog of vertebrate ancient (VA)
opsin, the function of which is unknown. Subsequent characterization revealed the occurrence of two kinds of mRNAs encoding
putative splicing variants, VA and VA-Long (VAL) opsin, the
latter of which is a novel variant of the former. Both opsins shared a
common core sequence in the membrane-spanning domains, but VAL-opsin
had a C-terminal tail much longer than that of VA-opsin. Functional
reconstitution experiments on the recombinant proteins showed that
VAL-opsin with bound 11-cis-retinal is a green-sensitive pigment ( max ~500 nm), whereas VA-opsin exhibited no
photosensitivity even in the presence of 11-cis-retinal.
Immunoreactivity specific to this functionally active VAL-opsin was
localized at a limited number of cells surrounding the diencephalic
ventricle of central thalamus, and these cells were distributed over
~200 µm along the rostrocaudal axis. Taken together with the
previous study on the locus of the teleost brain photosensitivity (von
Frisch K, 1911), it is strongly suggested that the VAL-positive cells in the zebrafish brain represent the deep brain photoreceptors. The
VAL-specific immunoreactivity was also detected in a subset of
non-GABAergic horizontal cells in the zebrafish retina. The existence
of VAL-opsin, a new member of the rhodopsin superfamily, in these
tissues may indicate its multiple roles in visual and nonvisual
photosensory physiology.
Key words:
VAL-opsin; VA-opsin; deep brain photoreceptor; horizontal
cell; alternative splicing; zebrafish
Copyright © 2000 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/00/2082845-07$05.00/0
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