Figures
Rhodopsin endocytosis in the compound eye of Drosophila melanogaster.
Pictured is the top-down, confocal view of the Drosophila eye. Visual transduction is initiated upon absorption of light by the protein rhodopsin (green) and occurs in the actin-rich microvillar structure, the rhabdomere (stained for actin, shown in magenta). Light stimulation also results in internalization of rhodopsin by endocytosis. The image shows endocytosis of rhodopsin from the rhabdomeres into the cell body. Work in this issue of PLoS Genetics (see Chinchore et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000377) demonstrates that degradation of internalized rhodopsin in a timely manner is essential for maintaining photoreceptor viability.
Image Credit: Yashodhan Chinchore and Patrick Dolph (Dartmouth College).
Citation: (2009) PLoS Genetics Issue Image | Vol. 5(2) February 2009. PLoS Genet 5(2): ev05.i02. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pgen.v05.i02
Published: February 27, 2009
Copyright: © 2009 Chinchore et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Pictured is the top-down, confocal view of the Drosophila eye. Visual transduction is initiated upon absorption of light by the protein rhodopsin (green) and occurs in the actin-rich microvillar structure, the rhabdomere (stained for actin, shown in magenta). Light stimulation also results in internalization of rhodopsin by endocytosis. The image shows endocytosis of rhodopsin from the rhabdomeres into the cell body. Work in this issue of PLoS Genetics (see Chinchore et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000377) demonstrates that degradation of internalized rhodopsin in a timely manner is essential for maintaining photoreceptor viability.
Image Credit: Yashodhan Chinchore and Patrick Dolph (Dartmouth College).