Unique transducins expressed in long and short photoreceptors of lamprey Petromyzon marinus

• Published in: Vision research (Oxford) Vol. 48; no. 21; pp. 2302 - 2308
• Main Authors: Muradov, Hakim, Kerov, Vasily, Boyd, Kimberly K., Artemyev, Nikolai O.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2008; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adaptation, Ocular - physiology; Animals; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Cloning, Molecular; Cones; Evolution; Evolution, Molecular; Eye and associated structures. Visual pathways and centers. Vision; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Light Signal Transduction - physiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Opsin; Opsins - metabolism; Petromyzon - genetics; Petromyzon - metabolism; Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate - metabolism; Phototransduction; Phylogeny; Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells - metabolism; Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells - metabolism; Rods; Transducin; Transducin - genetics; Transducin - metabolism; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Transducin; Evolution; Phototransduction; Rods; Opsin; Cones; Eye; Visual system; Cone; Rod; Photoreceptor; Retina
• ISSN: 0042-6989; 1878-5646
• DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2008.07.006

Lampreys represent the most primitive vertebrate class of jawless fish and serve as an evolutionary model of the vertebrate visual system. Transducin-α (Gα t) subunits were investigated in lamprey Petromyzon marinus in order to understand the molecular origins of rod and cone photoreceptor G proteins. Two Gα t subunits, Gα tL and Gα tS, were identified in the P. marinus retina. Gα tL is equally distant from cone and rod G proteins and is expressed in the lamprey’s long photoreceptors. The short photoreceptor Gα tS is a rod-like transducin-α that retains several unique features of cone transducins. Thus, the duplication of the ancestral transducin gene giving rise to rod transducins has already occurred in the last common ancestor of the jawed and jawless vertebrates.