MOLECULAR GENETICS OF RHODOPSIN SENSITIVITY

描述(改编自申请人的摘要)：本报告的总体目标 该提案旨在了解肤色歧视的潜在机制，包括 视觉色素光谱敏感度是如何调节的，以及关于 环境中的颜色与生物的行为息息相关。 这些研究将主要集中在果蝇身上，这种果蝇使用视觉色素 独特的光谱特性，可以用完善的 光谱和生理技术。操控生物体的能力 基因允许许多关于眼睛和视觉色素的有趣问题 在活体内的作用有待解决。视觉色素结构的关系 对光谱的敏感性和生理特性将进行检测。在……里面 此外，还将检查其他无脊椎动物的视觉色素。 这些努力在果蝇中异源表达这种色素，并 使用生理学方法表征它们的光谱敏感度 只有克隆的无脊椎动物视蛋白的例子 已经成功表达和表征的果蝇 系统。研究的最后一个领域涉及一组行为研究 旨在更好地描述特定类别的 感光细胞和苍蝇辨别颜色的能力。财富 果蝇和其他无脊椎动物的行为信息 系统将与现代分子遗传学技术相结合，以 开始对颜色歧视进行功能剖析。这些相辅相成 方法最终应该更全面地理解如何 有关环境的颜色信息由编码、处理和使用 有机体。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): The overall aim of this proposal is to understand mechanisms underlying color discrimination, including how visual pigment spectral sensitivity is regulated and how information about color in the environment is integrated into the behavior of a living organism. The studies will focus primarily on Drosophila, which use visual pigments with unique spectral properties that can be characterized using well-developed spectral and physiological techniques. The ability to manipulate the organism genetically allows many interesting questions concerning eye and visual pigment function to be addressed in vivo. The relationships of visual pigment structure to spectral sensitivity and physiological properties will be examined. In addition, the visual pigments of other invertebrate organisms will be examined. These efforts to heterologously express such pigments in Drosophila and to characterize their spectral sensitivity using physiological methods are the only examples of cloned invertebrate opsins from an organism other than Drosophila that have been successfully expressed and characterized in any system. The final area of research concerns a set of behavioral studies designed to better characterize the functional role of specific classes of photoreceptor cells and the ability of flies to discriminate colors. The wealth of behavioral information available from Drosophila and other invertebrate systems will be used in combination with modern molecular genetic techniques to begin a functional dissection of color discrimination. These complementary approaches should ultimately provide a more comprehensive understanding of how color information about the environment is encoded, processed and used by the organism.