Expression of visual and nonvisual opsins in American chameleon.
We previously characterized five visual opsin genes of American chameleon (Anolis carolinensis). Here we report its nonvisual opsin gene orthologous to the chicken pineal gland-specific opsin (p-opsin) gene. In the pure-cone American chameleon retina, all visual opsins including rod opsin are expressed. In both pineal and parietal eye, three visual opsins as well as P-opsin are expressed. Although opsins are detected in the pineal glands of a wide variety of vertebrates, Southern analysis suggests that the P-opsin gene is used mainly by birds and reptiles.
Kawamura
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Department of Biology, Syracuse University, NY 13244, USA.
Yokoyama
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D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D015870:Gene Expression; D008116:Lizards / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010870:Pineal Gland / Q000378:metabolism; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012160:Retina / Q000378:metabolism; D017299:Rod Opsins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
D017299:Rod Opsins