Burns M E, Baylor D A
Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Annu Rev Neurosci. 2001;24:779-805. doi: 10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.779.
Visual transduction captures widespread interest because its G-protein signaling motif recurs throughout nature yet is uniquely accessible for study in the photoreceptor cells. The light-activated currents generated at the photoreceptor outer segment provide an easily observed real-time measure of the output of the signaling cascade, and the ease of obtaining pure samples of outer segments in reasonable quantity facilitates biochemical experiments. A quiet revolution in the study of the mechanism has occurred during the past decade with the advent of gene-targeting techniques. These have made it possible to observe how transduction is perturbed by the deletion, overexpression, or mutation of specific components of the transduction apparatus.
视觉转导引起了广泛关注，因为其G蛋白信号基序在自然界中普遍存在，但在光感受器细胞中进行研究却具有独特的便利性。光感受器外段产生的光激活电流为信号级联反应的输出提供了易于观察的实时测量指标，并且能够轻松获得数量可观的纯净外段样本，这有利于开展生化实验。在过去十年中，随着基因靶向技术的出现，该机制的研究发生了一场悄然的变革。这些技术使得观察转导如何因转导装置特定成分的缺失、过表达或突变而受到干扰成为可能。
