FBS Colloquia No.165Sensory transduction group

Molecular bases of differences between rods and cones

In the vertebrate retina, there are two types of photoreceptor cells, rods and cones. Although both types of the cells convert light signals to photoresponses, characteristics of the photoresponses and of the cellular morphology are different between rods and cones. For example, rods are highly light-sensitive but cones are less light-sensitive. Due to this difference, rods mediate night vision and cones mediate daylight vision. So far, we have tried to elucidate the molecular bases of these differences, and succeeded to explain a certain degree of the differences between rods and cones. However, still there are some aspects that are not solved. In this seminar, we will report the findings of our studies, and discuss the problems to be solved in future.