NIH R01 · 2025
Transducin and melanopsin independent phototransduction in postnatal retinal development
Genetic ablations of rod and cone transducin alpha subunits in the so-called KK mice do not silent the outer retina as we have found that inner retinal neurons still robustly respond to light. This surprised transducin-independent light sensitivity does not depend on melanopsin signaling in intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells. This so-named “transducin- and melanopsin-independent phototransduction (TMIP)” embodied in the 3K mice apparently works through an unknown and potentially novel signaling mechanism in retina. We have shown that TMIP-generated light signal passes through retinal circuit and is capable of driving retinal ganglion cells to confer image-forming vision. We…
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