Abstract
This study investigated the lipid and fatty acid composition of gecko photoreceptor outer segment membranes which contain the P521 cone-type pigment. The lipids of gecko photoreceptor outer segment membranes were first extracted and separated by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and then analyzed by gas chromatography (GC). Our results show that gecko photoreceptor outer segment membranes contain less phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and more phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylserine (PS) compared with those of bovine and frog. The content of the polyunsaturated fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), in PC and PS is also the highest yet reported (55 and 63%, respectively). These lipid differences may provide some insight into the specific lipid requirements of cone-type pigments. Copyright (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 785-789 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - B Biochemistry and Molecular Biology |
| Volume | 120 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1998 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Dr Li Tang for helping the preparation of the gecko photoreceptor outer segments. This work is supported in part by NIH (EY01323 to T.G.E.and EY00871 and EY04149 to R.E.A.); The Foundation Fighting Blindness (Baltimore, MD); Research to Prevent Blindness. (New York, NY); Presbyterian Health Foundation (Oklahoma City, OK); and Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation (Ardmore, OK). R.E.A. is a Senior Scientific Investigator of Research to Prevent Blindness.
Keywords
- Cell membrane
- Cone-type visual pigment
- Docosahexaenoic acid
- Gecko
- Lipid composition
- Phospholipid
- Photoreceptor
- Retina