Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:29:03.071Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Questioning photostasis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2013

ALEXANDER CUNEA ,
RANA BEGUM ,
DIETER REINISCH  and
GLEN JEFFERY
ALEXANDER CUNEA
Affiliation:
Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, UK
RANA BEGUM
Affiliation:
Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, UK
DIETER REINISCH
Affiliation:
Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, UK
GLEN JEFFERY*
Affiliation:
Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, UK
*
*Address correspondence to: Glen Jeffery, Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, Bath Street, London EC1V 9EL, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Photostasis is a phenomenon where the photoreceptor outer segment (OS) length and its rhodopsin content vary depending on environmental lighting. When light is reduced for extended periods, it is argued that OS lengthen and its rhodopsin concentration rises to increase photon capture in darker environment. Increases in OS length may occur because the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells reduce OS consumption in prolonged darkness. But sample sizes in assessing changes in OS length have been small, and results highly varied with no statistical analysis ever offered. Further, animals used were often albinos, which have abnormal RPE cells. Here we keep pigmented and albino mice for 21 days in darkness and compare OS length with those in a normal 12:12 light/dark environment. We measured approximately 1300 OS but found no statistically significant difference in their lengths between light and dark groups in either pigmentation phenotype, although there was a small trend in the data favoring OS extension in the dark. Given that earlier studies were undertaken on limited samples with no statistical analysis, our data pose serious questions for the notion of mammalian photostasis in terms of significant OS plasticity.

Keywords

PhotostasisMicePhotoreceptorRod outer segmentDark adaptation
Type
Brief Communication
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , July 2013 , pp. 169 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, T., Shahabi, G., Hoh-Kam, J. & Jeffery, G. (2010). Held under arrest: Many mature albino RPE cells display polyploidal features consistent with abnormal cell cycle retention. Experimental Eye Research 90, 368–372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Battelle, B.A. & LaVail, M.M. (1978). Rhodopsin content and rod outer segment length in albino rat eyes: Modification by dark adaptation. Experimental Eye Research 26, 487–497.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Behrens, M. & Krebs, W. (1976). The effect of light-dark adaptation on the ultrastructure of limulus lateral eye retinular cells. Journal of Comparative Physiology. A, Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 107, 77–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blest, A.D. (1978). The rapid synthesis and destruction of photoreceptor membrane by a dinopid spider: A daily cycle. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 200, 463–483.Google Scholar
Carter-Dawson, L.D. & LaVail, M.M. (1979). Rods and cones in the mouse retina. I. Structural analysis using light and electron microscopy. The Journal of Comparative Neurology 188, 245–262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Castellano-Munoz, M., Israel, S.H. & Hudspeth, A.J. (2010). Efferent control of the electrical and mechanical properties of hair cells in the bullfrog’s sacculus. PloS One 5, e13777.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cunea, A. & Jeffery, G. (2007). The ageing photoreceptor. Visual Neuroscience 24, 151–155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dallos, P., He, D.Z., Lin, X., Sziklai, I., Mehta, S. & Evans, B.N. (1997). Acetylcholine, outer hair cell electromotility, and the cochlear amplifier. The Journal of Neuroscience 17, 2212–2226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Daly, G.H., DiLeonardo, J.M., Balkema, N.R. & Balkema, G.W. (2004). The relationship between ambient lighting conditions, absolute dark-adapted thresholds, and rhodopsin in black and hypopigmented mice. Visual Neuroscience 21, 925–934.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goutman, J.D., Fuchs, P.A. & Glowatzki, E. (2005). Facilitating efferent inhibition of inner hair cells in the cochlea of the neonatal rat. The Journal of Physiology 566, 49–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grant, S., Patel, N.N., Philp, A.R., Grey, C.N., Lucas, R.D., Foster, R.G., Bowmaker, J.K. & Jeffery, G. (2001). Rod photopigment deficits in albinos are specific to mammals and arise during retinal development. Visual Neuroscience 18, 245–251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jeffery, G., Brem, G. & Montoliu, L. (1997). Correction of retinal abnormalities found in albinism by introduction of a functional tyrosinase gene in transgenic mice and rabbits. Brain Research Developmental Brain Research 99, 95–102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Penn, J.S. & Anderson, R.E. (1987). Effect of light history on rod outer-segment membrane composition in the rat. Experimental Eye Research 44, 767–778.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Penn, J.S. & Williams, T.P. (1986). Photostasis: Regulation of daily photon-catch by rat retinas in response to various cyclic illuminances. Experimental Eye Research 43, 915–928.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rabbitt, R.D. & Brownell, W.E. (2011). Efferent modulation of hair cell function. Current Opinion in Oolaryngology & Head and Neck Surgery 19, 376–381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reuter, T. (2011). Fifty years of dark adaptation 1961-2011. Vision Research 51, 2243–2262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schremser, J.L. & Williams, T.P. (1995). Rod outer segment (ROS) renewal as a mechanism for adaptation to a new intensity environment. I. Rhodopsin levels and ROS length. Experimental Eye Research 61, 17–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shahabi, G., Golding, M., Lenassi, E. & Jeffery, G. (2011). Distorting the mosaic: The effect of melanin on ageing RPE. In ARVO, pp. 3208/A3456. Fort Lauderdale, FL.Google Scholar
Wang, Y.J., Okutani, F., Murata, Y., Taniguchi, M., Namba, T. & Kaba, H. (2012). Histone acetylation in the olfactory bulb of young rats facilitates aversive olfactory learning and synaptic plasticity. Neuroscience 232C, 21–31.Google Scholar
White, R.H. & Lord, E. (1975). Diminution and enlargement of the mosquito rhabdom in light and darkness. The Journal of General Physiology 65, 583–598.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, TP., Thistle, AB., ed. (1998). Photostasis and Related Phenomena. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, R.W. (1967). The renewal of photoreceptor cell outer segments. The Journal of Cell Biology 33, 61–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Young, R.W. (1971). The renewal of rod and cone outer segments in the rhesus monkey. The Journal of Cell Biology 49, 303–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed