SGER: Calcium and Excitation of Isolated Drosophila Photoreceptors

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A central unresolved question in visual physiology and biochemistry is: How does light cause the creation of nerve signals in the retina? This process is called "visual transduction." Nerve signals generated during transduction are further processed and encoded by higher-order cells in the retina and ultimately, in the brain. Exciting new developments in genetics, biochemistry, and electrophysiology have made the Drosophila (fruit fly) visual system a new model preparation with which to examine visual transduction. This elegantly simple experimental system promises to yield rapid advances in our understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of biological signalling. In particular, this research will offer a new scientific description of crucial intracellular events in visual transduction, by studying the isolated photoreceptor preparation. Using light- induced introduction of calcium ions into the intracellular space of a single photoreceptor will also enable a variety of significant questions to be answered in this model preparation that will have major significance for understanding the processes of visual transduction that occur, generally, in other species.