This book is a report of a four-day Symposium on the Biochemistry and Physiology of Visual Pigments, which took place immediately after the VIth International Congress on Photobiology, held in Bochum, Federal Republic of Germany, in August 1972. This meeting, which brought together about 50 investigators of various aspects of the visual process, was devoted to the visual cells of both vertebrates and invertebrates. Whereas the International Symposium on the Biochemistry of the Retina, held at Nij megen, The Netherlands, in 1968, had concentrated on vertebrate photoreceptors, this Symposium dealt with invertebrate photoreceptors as well, so that workers in each field could become acquainted with recent progress in the other area. The papers presented at the Symposium were divided into six main topics, to each of which a half-day session was devoted. The six parts of this book, following the intro ductory lecture, essentially correspond to these sessions. In addition to the invited con tributions, the volume contains a number of short communications by other partici pants and two contributions by invited participants, who were unable to attend. The volume closes, as did the Symposium, with a General Discussion, prepared and moderated by S. L. BONTING, in which an attempt was made to integrate various new findings, and to reconcile certain points of disagreement.
Author(s): George Wald (auth.), Helmut Langer (eds.)
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Year: 1973
Language: English
Pages: 368
Tags: Neurosciences; Biochemistry, general
Front Matter....Pages I-XIII
Visual Pigments and Photoreceptor Physiology....Pages 1-13
Front Matter....Pages 15-15
Theory of Retinal and Related Molecules....Pages 17-18
Conformations of 11-cis Retinal....Pages 19-28
The Binding Site of Retinaldehyde in Native Rhodopsin....Pages 29-38
Chromophore Migration after Illumination of Rhodopsin....Pages 39-44
Front Matter....Pages 45-45
The Kinetics of Early Intermediate Processes in the Photolysis of Visual Pigments....Pages 47-56
Photoselection and Linear Dichroism of Retinal Isomers and Visual Pigments....Pages 57-68
Studies on Intermediates of Visual Pigments by Absorption Spectra at Liquid Helium Temperature and Circular Dichroism at Low Temperatures....Pages 69-81
Interconversion of Metarhodopsins....Pages 83-88
Temperature Dependence of Slow Thermal Reactions during the Bleaching of Rhodopsin in the Frog Retina....Pages 89-99
Metarhodopsin III....Pages 101-104
The Effect of Urea upon the Photosensitivity of Bovine Rhodopsin....Pages 105-111
Front Matter....Pages 113-113
Interrelations of Visual Pigments and “Vitamins A” in Fish and Amphibia....Pages 115-121
A Catalytic Role of Dihydroriboflavin in the Geometrical Isomerization of all-trans Retinal....Pages 123-130
Active Site and Enzymological Studies on the Components of the Visual Cycle....Pages 131-138
Formation of Isorhodopsin from Photolyzed Rhodopsin in Darkness....Pages 139-145
Behavior of Rhodopsin and Metarhodopsin in Isolated Rhabdoms of Crabs and Lobster....Pages 147-153
Photoregeneration and Sensitivity Control of Photoreceptors of Invertebrates....Pages 155-166
The Photopigments in an Insect Retina....Pages 167-174
Rhodopsin Processes and the Function of the Pupil Mechanism in Flies....Pages 175-180
Front Matter....Pages 113-113
Biochemical Properties of Retinochrome....Pages 181-191
Front Matter....Pages 193-193
Energy in Vertebrate Photoreceptor Function....Pages 195-203
Rod Dark-Adaptation and Visual Pigment Photoproducts....Pages 205-209
Long-Lived Photoproducts in the Retinae of the Frog and the Crucian Carp....Pages 211-217
Adaptation Properties of Intracellularly Recorded Gekko Photoreceptor Potentials....Pages 219-224
Receptor Adaptation and Receptor Interactions: Some Results of Intracellular Recordings (Preliminary Note)....Pages 225-228
Excitation and Adaptation in the Cephalopod Retina: An Equivalent Circuit Model....Pages 229-233
Front Matter....Pages 235-235
Experiments on the Ionic Mechanism of the Receptor Potential of Limulus and Crayfish Photoreceptor....Pages 237-244
Control of the Dark Current in Vertebrate Rods and Cones....Pages 245-255
Spatial Origin of the Fast Photovoltage in Retinal Rods....Pages 257-261
Photovoltages and Dark Voltage Gradients Across Receptor Layer of Dark-Adapted Rat Retina....Pages 263-265
In vitro Physiology of Frog Photoreceptor Membranes....Pages 267-273
The Internal Transmitter Model for Visual Excitation: Some Quantitative Implications....Pages 275-282
Front Matter....Pages 283-283
Chemo-Surgical Studies on Outer Segments....Pages 285-294
Ultrastructure of the Photoreceptors of the Bovine Retina....Pages 295-298
Microspectrophotometry of Visual Receptors....Pages 299-305
Dichroism in Rods during Bleaching....Pages 307-312
Octopus Rhodopsin in situ: Microphotometric Measurements of Orientational and Spectral Changes....Pages 313-317
Studies on the Assembly of Rod Outer Segment Disc Membranes....Pages 319-326
Enzyme and Phospholipid Patterns in the Compound Eye of Insects....Pages 327-334
Front Matter....Pages 283-283
Cyclic AMP and Photoreceptor Function....Pages 335-340
The Effects of Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors on the Frog Rod Receptor Potential....Pages 341-350
General Discussion....Pages 351-363
Back Matter....Pages 365-368
