Any living organism that directly harnesses the sun's energy uses one of three types of energy-converting pigments: chlorophyll, which gives plants their green color, bacteriochlorophyll, or retinal ...

This image shows the structure of rhodopsin embedded in a membrane. The red structure in the middle is the retinal chromophore responsible for absorbing visible light. (Image credit: Kiser et al., ...

Seeing starts in the rods and cones, two different types of sensory cells in the retina of the eye. The rods are responsible for dark vision and are particularly sensitive to light as a result. A ...

Photoreceptor cells in our eyes can adjust to both weak and strong light levels, but we still don't know exactly how they do it. Emeritus Professor Fumio Hayashi of Kobe University and his colleagues ...

HOUSTON - (July 25, 2016) -- The study of rhodopsin -- the molecule that allows the eye to detect dim light -- has a long and well-recognized history of more than 100 years. Nevertheless, there is ...

Photoreceptor cells in our eyes can adjust to both weak and strong light levels, but we still don't know exactly how they do it. Emeritus Professor Fumio Hayashi of Kobe University and his colleagues ...

The Chesapeake Bay is known for its blue crabs, but those crustaceans are far outnumbered by much tinier residents: bacteria. Every milliliter of bay water is home to thousands to millions of these ...

A team of biophysicists from Russia, Germany, and France, featuring researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, has discovered and studied the structure of the KR2 rhodopsin under ...

Researchers have revealed the impact of native lipids on rhodopsin signaling and regeneration, which may usher in a new paradigm for discovery of drugs that target G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).

Photoreceptor cells in our eyes can adjust to both weak and strong light levels, but we still don't know exactly how they do it. Researchers now revealed that the photoreceptor protein rhodopsin forms ...