Polyenes and vision.
Polyenes are important for vision in all sighted species. The visual pigments (the rhodopsins) all use 11-cis-retinal as the chromophore; some possible reasons for the importance of this isomer are now emerging. New results on the involvement of xanthophils in the maintenance of the retina are also discussed.
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Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
D006801:Humans; D011090:Polyenes / Q000378:metabolism*; D012172:Retinaldehyde / Q000378:metabolism; D012243:Rhodopsin / Q000378:metabolism; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*
D011090:Polyenes; D012243:Rhodopsin; D012172:Retinaldehyde