- We’re highlighting an article featuring Anti-Melanopsin (Cat. #AB-N39).
- Melanopsin is a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) and a photopigment that helps control both normal vision and other responses to light, such as adjusting our daily body rhythms.
- The mouse retina has six types of light-sensitive nerve cells called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC). Although all six use the same main G-protein, called Gαq, the M1 and M4 types appear to process light signals in different ways.
- In HEK293 cells, melanopsin was found to couple to all four major G-protein families and generate a cell-signaling molecule called cyclic-AMP (cAMP) through a pathway involving Gαq and Gβγ.
- Experiments in mouse retinal cells showed that increasing cAMP can drive action potentials in both M1 and M4 cells, meaning M1 cells also have the machinery needed to respond to cAMP.
- The researchers used Transcriptomic and RNAscope analyses and found that M1 and M4 cells produce different amounts and types of Regulators of G-Protein Signaling proteins (RGS), which help control how G-protein signals are turned on and off. M1 cells have more Rgs16, while M4 cells have more Rgs5 and Rgs11.
- Our antibody to Melanopsin (Cat. #AB-N39) was used in immunohistochemistry staining of retinal sections following the RNAscope in situ hybridization.
- Further experiments showed that RGS5 can specifically reduce signaling through Gαi/o, and the combination of RGS proteins found in M4 cells suppresses this pathway more strongly than the RGS proteins found in M1 cells.
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