Physiological Relevance of Spectral Property of Visual Opsins in Jumping Spiders

Abstract

Animals receive light from their environments using photosensitive proteins, opsins, for many purposes. Since opsins are diversified in some aspects including absorption and biochemical properties, it is essential to investigate properties of opsins for understanding characteristics and mechanisms of opsin-based photoreceptions. We previously investigated properties and functions of visual and non-visual opsins from a jumping spider. Our previous studies suggest that the absorption spectrum of a jumping spider opsin expressed in the retina is involved in receiving defocused images, which could be used for depth perception. The mechanism for spectral tuning of this opsin could involve a hydrogen-bonding network around the chromophore retinal. In this review, we focus on our previous findings about such physiological relevance and spectral tuning mechanism of the absorption spectrum of the opsin in a jumping spider.