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Science 7 January 1983:
Vol. 219. no. 4580, pp. 69 - 71
DOI: 10.1126/science.219.4580.69
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Articles

Bleaching of Rhabdoms in Eyes of Intact Butterflies

GARY D. BERNARD 1

1 Yale University, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Post Office Box 3333, New Haven, Connecticut 06510

The photochemistry of butterfly rhabdoms has properties that had been associated exclusively with the photoreceptor organelles of vertebrates. Noninvasive measurements of the absorbance spectra of rhabdoms in intact butterflies show that their rhodopsins are converted by light to metarhodopsins that decay from the rhabdom in the dark. A total bleach is possible because the first-order decay of metarhodopsin is considerably faster than the kinetically more complicated recovery of rhodopsin.

Submitted on May 6, 1982
Revised on October 5, 1982


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Gene Duplication Is an Evolutionary Mechanism for Expanding Spectral Diversity in the Long-Wavelength Photopigments of Butterflies.
F. D. Frentiu, G. D. Bernard, M. P. Sison-Mangus, A. Van Zandt Brower, and A. D. Briscoe (2007)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 24, 2016-2028
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Beauty in the eye of the beholder: the two blue opsins of lycaenid butterflies and the opsin gene-driven evolution of sexually dimorphic eyes.
M. P. Sison-Mangus, G. D. Bernard, J. Lampel, and A. D. Briscoe (2006)
J. Exp. Biol. 209, 3079-3090
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Eyeshine and spectral tuning of long wavelength-sensitive rhodopsins: no evidence for red-sensitive photoreceptors among five Nymphalini butterfly species.
A. D. Briscoe and G. D. Bernard (2005)
J. Exp. Biol. 208, 687-696
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Functional Diversification of Lepidopteran Opsins Following Gene Duplication.
A. D. Briscoe (2001)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 18, 2270-2279
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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