Dark adaptation in vertebrate photoreceptors

Abstract

Exposure of the eye to bright light bleaches a significant fraction of the photopigment in rods and cones and produces a prolonged decrease in the sensitivity of vision, which recovers slowly as the photopigment is regenerated. This sensitivity decrease is larger than would be expected merely from the decrease in the concentration of the pigment. Recent experiments have shown that the decrease in sensitivity is produced largely by an excitation of the phototransduction cascade by bleached pigment; even in darkness, it produces an equivalent background similar to that produced by real steady background illumination. Thus, excitation produced by a form of rhodopsin thought previously to be inactive has a profound effect on the physiology of the photoreceptor. This raises the possibility that forms of other G protein-coupled receptors thought to be inactive might also play an important role in signal transduction and disease.