PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE ED - , TI - Not So Different After All AID - 10.1126/stke.2692005tw47 DP - 2005 Feb 01 TA - Science's STKE PG - tw47--tw47 VI - 2005 IP - 269 4099 - http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/2005/269/tw47.short 4100 - http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/2005/269/tw47.full SO - Sci. STKE2005 Feb 01; 2005 AB - Melanopsin is an atypical opsin protein required in vertebrates to mediate nonvisual responses to light, including regulation of circadian behavior and pupil constriction. Panda et al. report that, when expressed in Xenopus oocytes, melanopsin activates heterotrimeric G protein signaling pathways characteristic of invertebrate opsins in response to light. Melanopsin could also activate mammalian TRPC channels, whose paralogs in Drosophila serve as phototransduction channels. Thus, an invertebrate signaling system appears to be preserved in the mammalian retina. S. Panda, S. K. Nayak, B. Campo, J. R. Walker, J. B. Hogenesch, T. Jegla, Illumination of the melanopsin signaling pathway. Science 307, 600-604 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]