Abstract
ON exposure to light, rhodopsin (visual purple, the photo-receptor pigment of low-intensity vision) is changed to lumi-rhodopsin and thence by a thermal reaction to meta-rhodopsin1. The exact nature of these substances is unknown, other than that they consist of retinene (vitamin A aldehyde) joined in some way to a protein, opsin. In order to explain the characteristic chemical and spectroscopic behaviour of lumi- and meta-rhodopsin, workers in this field have suggested1 that one, or both, of lumi- and meta-rhodopsin may be free radicals.
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References
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Commoner, B., Townsend, J., and Pake, G. E., Nature, 174, 689 (1954).
Collins, F. D. Love, R. M., and Morton, R. A., Biochem. J., 51, 292 (1952).
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PITT, G., TINKHAM, M. Lumi- and Meta-Rhodopsin. Nature 176, 220–221 (1955). https://doi.org/10.1038/176220a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/176220a0
