Response sensitivity and voltage gain of the rod- and cone-bipolar cell synapses in dark-adapted tiger salamander retina.

Response sensitivity and voltage gain of the rod- and cone-bipolar cell synapses in dark-adapted tiger salamander retina. J. Neurophysiol. 78: 2662-2673, 1997. Rods, cones, and bipolar cells were recorded in superfused, flat-mounted isolated retinas of the larval tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum, under dark-adapted conditions. Voltage responses of 24 rods, 15 cones, and 41 bipolar cells in dark-adapted retinas to 500 nm light steps of various intensities were listed and fitted with hyperbolic functions, and their step sensitivities and relative sensitivities (log sigma) were estimated. In the linear response-intensity ranges, the step sensitivity of rods, SS(rod), is -1.0 mV photon-1 micron2 s or 0.034 mV Rh*-1 s rod and that of the cones, SS(cone), is approximately 0. 00146 mV photon-1 micron2 s or 0.000048 mV Rh*-1 s rod. The rod and cone responses were relatively homogenous with little variations in response amplitude and sensitivity. In contrast, bipolar cell responses were heterogenous with large variations in response amplitude and sensitivity. The maximum response amplitude of bipolar cells varied from 5 to 25 mV, and the relative response sensitivity (log sigma) varied >6 log units (-8.11 to -2.32). The step sensitivity of bipolar cells in the linear response-intensity range varied from 0.0000438 to 51.82 mV photon-1 micron2 s. Bipolar cells in dark-adapted tiger salamander retinas fell into two groups according to their relative sensitivities with very few cells falling in the intermediate light intensity region. The mixed bipolar cells (DBCM and HBCM) exhibited relative response sensitivity ranged from -8.11 to -5.54, and step sensitivity ranged from 1.22 to 51.82 mV photon-1 micron2 s. The cone-driven bipolar cells (DBCC and HBCC) exhibited relative response sensitivity ranged from -3.45 to -2.32, and step sensitivity ranged from 0.0000438 to 0. 00201 mV photon-1 micron2 sec. The chord voltage gain of the rod-DBCM or rod-HBCM synapses near the rod dark membrane potential ranged from 1.14 to 48.43 and that of the cone-DBCC or cone-HBCC synaptic gain near the cone dark membrane potential ranged from 0.03 to 1.38. The highest voltage gains were found near the rod or cone dark membrane potentials. By the use of linear subtraction method, we studied the synaptic inputs from cones to five mixed bipolar cells, and the voltage gains of the cone synapses in each of the bipolar cells were very close to the voltage gain of the rod synapses. This result suggests that although the responses of mixed bipolar cells are mediated mainly by rods when lights of short and medium wavelengths are used, their responses to long wavelength lights (>650 nm) are mediated by both rods and cones with comparable synaptic gains. Functional roles of the mixed and cone-driven bipolar cells in information processing in dark-adapted retinas are discussed.