title: Making (a) sense of non-visual ocular photoreception.
abstract: A subset of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells transduce information about ambient lighting conditions to areas of the brain involved in tasks including entrainment of the circadian clock, pupillary light reflexes and melatonin synthesis. The phototransduction system(s) utilized by these cells are unknown. Melanopsin and cryptochromes have been proposed as candidate photopigments for this system. Recent analyses of retinal degenerate mice lacking melanopsin or cryptochromes indicates that outer and inner photoreceptors can both contribute to non-visual photoresponses, and that both melanopsin and cryptochromes play important roles in this process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University Medical School, Campus Box 8096, 660 S. Euclid Avenue, St Louis, MO 63110, USA. vangelder@vision.wustl.edu
authors.forename: Russell N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Van Gelder
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D056931:Cryptochromes; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005136:Eye Proteins; D005420:Flavoproteins / Q000502:physiology*; D005829:Geniculate Bodies / Q000502:physiology; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000502:physiology; D008550:Melatonin / Q000502:physiology; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000502:physiology; D017956:Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate; D020419:Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate / Q000502:physiology*; D051219:Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide; D011680:Pupil / Q000502:physiology; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled; D012018:Reflex / Q000502:physiology; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D017299:Rod Opsins / Q000502:physiology*; D013493:Suprachiasmatic Nucleus / Q000502:physiology; D000099210:Melanopsin
chemical_list: D056931:Cryptochromes; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005136:Eye Proteins; D005420:Flavoproteins; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D008550:Melatonin; D009479:Neuropeptides; D051219:Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled; D017299:Rod Opsins; D000099210:Melanopsin; C119828:cry protein, Drosophila