G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) comprise the largest family of cell surface receptors, which signal primarily via G proteins or arrestins 1,2. Upon activation, GPCRs recruit heterotrimeric G ...

Any living organism that directly harnesses the sun's energy uses one of three types of energy-converting pigments: chlorophyll, which gives plants their green color, bacteriochlorophyll, or retinal ...

A group of researchers discovered that the rhodopsin -- a protein in the eye that detects light -- of whale sharks has changed to efficiently detect blue light, which penetrates deep-sea water easily.

Rhodopsin is the first G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) with its three-dimensional structure solved by X-ray crystallography. The crystal structure of rhodopsin has revealed the molecular mechanism ...

Proteins common in multiple species were compared to understand the relationship between how proteins change shape, both over seconds or minutes and throughout evolution. The image shows the ...

Seeing starts in the rods and cones, two different types of sensory cells in the retina of the eye. The rods are responsible for dark vision and are particularly sensitive to light as a result. A ...

A new, ultrafast raman spectroscopy method has given researchers a glimpse of the early stages of the vision process. Vision is jump-started by the isomerization of the retinal chromophore in ...

Photoreceptor cells in our eyes can adjust to both weak and strong light levels, but we still don't know exactly how they do it. Researchers now revealed that the photoreceptor protein rhodopsin forms ...

Scientists have identified two non-retinoid compounds that may be able to treat retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a group of inherited eye diseases that cause blindness. The compounds were discovered by ...