Mutagenesis studies of rhodopsin phototransduction

We employ the vertebrate visual proteins rhodopsin and transducin as a model system forstructure-function studies on the molecular mechanisms of transmembrane signaling. These visual proteins are members of a super-family of related guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory proteins (G proteins) and 0 protein-coupled receptors. We are particularly interested in the structures of the retinal binding pockets of visual pigments and in identifying the structural domains of both rhodopsin andtransducin involved in the G protein activation process