An accessory chromophore in red vision.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 17035994.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
In the absence of a red-sensitive visual pigment, some deep-sea fish use a chlorophyll derivative in their green-sensitive rod cells in order to see deep-red light. Here we show that living rods extracted from a salamander can also accumulate an exogenous chlorophyll derivative, chlorin e6, that renders them as sensitive to red light as they are to green. This vision enhancement by an unbleachable chlorophyll derivative might therefore be a general phenomenon in vertebrate photoreception.