Abstract
In the vertebrate retina, there are two types of photoreceptor cells, called rods and cones. Rods mediate twilight vision and cones mediate daylight vision. In accordance with their functional differences, their photoresponse characteristics are different from each other. However, little is known about the molecular bases in the differences of the photoresponse characteristics between rods and cones. Recently, we developed a method to purify cones from carp (Cyprinus carpio) retina, which made it possible to analyze the molecular mechanisms underlying the response differences between rods and cones. In this review, elucidated mechanisms are shown based on our recent results.
