PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hurtley, Stella M.
TI  - Sorting Light Receptors
AID  - 10.1126/scisignal.263ec109
DP  - 2009 Mar 24
TA  - Science Signaling
PG  - ec109--ec109
VI  - 2
IP  - 63
4099  - http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/2/63/ec109.short
4100  - http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/2/63/ec109.full
SO  - Sci. Signal.2009 Mar 24; 2
AB  - In the retina, cyclic nucleotide–gated (CNG) channels initiate the electrical response to light in the sensory cilia of the rods. The channels are exclusively localized to outer segments of the cilia, but how they are positioned has been largely unknown. Working on Xenopus, Kizhatil et al. showed that the CNG-β subunit bound to ankyrin-G, a membrane scaffolding protein, is required not only for post-Golgi transport of CNG channels but also for rod outer segment development. A human mutation in the CNG-β subunit disrupts this targeting mechanism and is associated with retinitis pigmentosa. Similar ankyrin-G–based mechanisms may occur in olfactory cilia, in the sperm flagella, and at other sites. K. Kizhatil, S. A. Baker, V. Y. Arshavsky, V. Bennett, Ankyrin-G promotes cyclic nucleotide–gated channel transport to rod photoreceptor sensory cilia. Science 323, 1614–1617 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]