Written by: Michael Land
Alternate title: light reception


The photopigments that absorb light all have a similar structure, which consists of a protein called an opsin and a small attached molecule known as the chromophore. The chromophore absorbs photons of light, using a mechanism that involves a change in its configuration. In vertebrate rods the chromophore is retinal, the aldehyde of vitamin A1. When retinal absorbs a photon, the double bond between the 11th and 12th carbon atoms flips, thus reconfiguring the molecule from the 11-cis to the all-trans form. This in turn triggers a molecular transduction cascade, resulting in the closure of sodium channels ... (100 of 13,098 words)

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