RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Seeing Is Believing JF Science's STKE JO Sci. STKE FD American Association for the Advancement of Science SP tw261 OP tw261 DO 10.1126/stke.3462006tw261 VO 2006 IS 346 YR 2006 UL http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/2006/346/tw261.abstract AB In order for vertebrate photoreceptors to exhibit their exquisite sensitivity that allows them to distinguish stimulation by a single photon, the sensor, rhodopsin, must have a very reproducible response. Rhodopsin propagates the signal from absorbed photons by activating transducin, but it is then inactivated by phosphorylation. Doan et al. measured the response of single rhodopsin molecules to single-photon absorption events in preparations of mouse photoreceptors. Multiple phosphorylation events provide independent inhibitory signals that together may provide the remarkable reproducibility of the amplitude and duration of rhodopsin activation observed in the vertebrate eye. T. Doan, A. Mendez, P. B. Detwiler, J. Chen, F. Rieke, Multiple phosphorylation sites confer reproducibility of the rod's single-photon responses. Science 313, 530-533 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]