Publication Date:
1991-10-18
Description:
The kinetics of the primary event in vision have been resolved with the use of femtosecond optical measurement techniques. The 11-cis retinal prosthetic group of rhodopsin is excited with a 35-femtosecond pump pulse at 500 nanometers, and the transient changes in absorption are measured between 450 and 580 nanometers with a 10-femtosecond probe pulse. Within 200 femtoseconds, an increased absorption is observed between 540 and 580 nanometers, indicating the formation of photoproduct on this time scale. These measurements demonstrate that the first step in vision, the 11-cis----11-trans torsional isomerization of the rhodopsin chromophore, is essentially complete in only 200 femtoseconds.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Schoenlein, R W -- Peteanu, L A -- Mathies, R A -- Shank, C V -- EY 02051/EY/NEI NIH HHS/ -- T32EY07043/EY/NEI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1991 Oct 18;254(5030):412-5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 94720.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1925597" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Lasers
;
Light
;
Photochemistry
;
Rhodopsin/*chemistry/*radiation effects
;
Spectrophotometry
;
Stereoisomerism
;
Time Factors
;
Vision, Ocular/physiology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
