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Photopigment conversions expressed in pupil mechanism of blowfly visual sense cells

Abstract

VISUAL sense cells of flies are depolarised at illumination1–3. This event triggers the pupil mechanism: pigment granules dispersed throughout the cytoplasm migrate towards the rhabdomere, that is, the light-guiding rod-like part of the sense cell which contains the visual pigment molecules4–8. The amount of pigment granules accumulated at the boundary of the rhabdomere controls, through absorption and scattering, the light flux in the photoreceptor4.

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STAVENGA, D., FLOKSTRA, J. & KUIPER, J. Photopigment conversions expressed in pupil mechanism of blowfly visual sense cells. Nature 253, 740–742 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/253740a0

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