title: Visinin: a novel calcium binding protein expressed in retinal cone cells.
abstract: Visinin is a retinal cone cell-specific protein (molecular weight 24,000, pI 5.1). To investigate its function, visinin cDNA was isolated from a chick retinal lambda gt11 cDNA library, using anti-visinin serum. The beta-galactosidase-visinin fusion protein was used for purifying epitope-selected antibody. The purified visinin antibody reacted only with a 24 kd protein in retinal cone cells. Visinin mRNA was expressed only in the retinal photoreceptor layer. The nucleotide sequence of the cDNA revealed that visinin has three E-F hand structures and is a Ca2+ binding protein. Visinin protein expressed in E. coli exhibited Ca2+ binding activity. These results suggest that visinin is a photoreceptor-specific Ca2+ binding protein and may be involved in phototransduction in the cone cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology I, School of Medicine, Osaka University, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamagata
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Miki
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D002645:Chickens; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D005136:Eye Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015723:Gene Library; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D010786:Photoreceptor Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012160:Retina / Q000378:metabolism; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D005136:Eye Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C045140:visinin; D004247:DNA