MOLECULAR GENETICS OF RHODOPSIN SENSITIVITY

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：本研究的总体目标 建议是了解机制的颜色歧视，包括 视色素光谱敏感性是如何调节的， 环境中的颜色被整合到生物体的行为中。 这些研究将主要集中在果蝇身上，果蝇使用视觉色素， 独特的光谱特性，可以使用完善的 光谱和生理技术。操纵生物体的能力 从遗传学上讲，许多关于眼睛和视觉色素的有趣问题 在体内发挥作用。视色素结构的关系 光谱灵敏度和生理特性将被检查。在 此外，亦会研究其他无脊椎生物的视色素。 这些在果蝇中异源表达这种色素的努力， 使用生理学方法表征其光谱敏感性的是 只有克隆的无脊椎动物视蛋白的例子来自生物体以外， 果蝇已经成功地表达和表征在任何 系统最后一个研究领域涉及一系列行为研究， 旨在更好地描述特定类别的 感光细胞和果蝇辨别颜色的能力。财富 从果蝇和其他无脊椎动物身上获得的行为信息 系统将与现代分子遗传技术相结合， 开始对颜色辨别的功能性剖析。这些互补 这些方法最终应该提供一个更全面的理解， 关于环境的颜色信息被编码、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.