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Signal transduction

The rhodopsin story continued

Nature volume 453, pages 292–293 (2008)Cite this article

Determination of the architecture of an invertebrate photoreceptor protein, squid rhodopsin, is a notable event. It illuminates the mechanism of invertebrate vision and a ubiquitous intracellular signalling system.

Many invertebrates have excellent visual systems1. Squid, for example, are formidable hunters that rely on their acute visual abilities to catch their prey. As in vertebrates, the properties of the photoreceptor protein rhodopsin contribute significantly to those abilities. So one reason for the attention that will be paid to the paper on page 363 of this issue2, in which Murakami and Kouyama present a high-resolution crystal structure of rhodopsin from the squid retina, is that it will help in understanding invertebrate vision. But the paper's significance extends far beyond that.

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Figure 1: The architecture of squid rhodopsin, as determined by Murakami and Kouyama2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gebhard F. X. Schertler is in the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK. gfx@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk,

    Gebhard F. X. Schertler

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  1. Gebhard F. X. Schertler
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Gebhard F. X. Schertler is a shareholder of, and scientific adviser to, Heptares Therapeutics, 1-3 Burtonhole Lane, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AD, UK (http://home2.btconnect.com/heptares/). This company is involved in research on G-protein-coupled receptors and drug design.

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Schertler, G. The rhodopsin story continued. Nature 453, 292–293 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453292a

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