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Professor George Wald Memorial Talk<br> <br> RUTH HUBBARD and ELIJAH WALD<br> <br> The ecology of visual pigments<br> <br> J K BOWMAKER<br> <br> Evolution of visual pigments and related molecules<br> <br> FUMIO TOKUNAGA<br> <br> Structure of rhodopsin obtained by electron cryo-microscopy<br> <br> GEBHARD F X SCHERTLER<br> <br> Photons, femtoseconds and dipolar interactions: a molecular picture of the primary events in vision<br> <br> RICHARD A MATHIES<br> <br> Photoactivation of rhodopsin: interplay between protein and chromophore<br> <br> WILLEM J DEGRIP<br> <br> Colour tuning mechanism of visual pigments<br> <br> STEVEN W LIN<br> <br> Amino acid residues controlling properties and functions of rod and cone visual pigments<br> <br> YOSHINORI SHICHIDA<br> <br> Signalling states of photoactivated rhodopsin<br> <br> KLAUS PETER HOFMANN<br> <br> Molecular mechanism of visual transduction<br> <br> KRZYSZTOF PALCZEWSKI<br> <br> Calcium-dependent regulation of rhodopsin phosphorylation<br> <br> SATORU KAWAMURA<br> <br> Emerging role of mass spectrometry in molecular biosciences: studies of protein phosphorylation in fly eyes as an example<br> <br> HIROYUKI MATSUMOTO<br> <br> Cyclic GMP-gated channel and peripherin/rds-rom-1 complex of rod cells<br> <br> ROBERT S MOLDAY<br> <br> Non-visual photoreception by a variety of vertebrate opsins<br> <br> DAISUKE KOJIMA

"This book provides and excellent summary of current work on photopigments and transduction. It should be particularly useful to those vision scientists and other whose primary interests lie elsewhere." (Opthal & Physiolog. Optics , Vol.21, No.5, 2001)

The <strong>Novartis Foundation</strong> is an international scientific and educational charity which promotes the study and general knowledge of science and in particular encourages international co-operation in scientific research.

Rhodopsins and Phototransduction Chair: Toru Yoshizawa 1999 Rhodopsins are.photosensitive proteins with a retinal as the chromophore, and are composed of seven transmembrane helices embedded in the membranes. They function as the photoreceptor proteins for visual transduction and extraocular systems. Upon absorption of light the region-specific isomerization of the retinal chromophore takes place, which is the switching mechanism of the visual transduction process and induces a conformational change of the protein moiety in the rhodopsin molecule. Metarhodopsin II, an intermediate in the bleaching process of rhodopsin, interacts with a G protein and mediates the light signal for further transduction processing in the visual cell. In the past few years, it has been shown that rhodopsin belongs to a large receptor family and that the general mechanism of the signal transduction mediated by this receptor family is almost universal. Fully interdisciplinary, this book brings together protein chemists, molecular biologists, structural biologists, biophysicists, biochemists and photobiologists to discuss their work. Recent data are presented on the photoreceptive mechanism of rhodopsins, the molecular mechanism of the visual transduction process, visual processes in the retina, and other transduction processes in the retina and brain. This book is dedicated to the memory of George Wald.

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