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F CRESCITELLI

Publications and source records attributed to F CRESCITELLI.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1963

THE PHOTOSENSITIVE RETINAL PIGMENT SYSTEM OF GEKKO GEKKO.

Retinal extracts of Gekko gekko were found to contain two retinene(1) photopigments, one with maximum absorption at about 521 mmicro, the second with a maximum in the region of 478 mmicro. These pigments were assayed by the method of partial bleaching and their spectral characteristics studied by examining their difference spectra. The 478 mmicro pigment was present in the extracts as 8 per cent of the total photopigment concentration. The two pigment systems were shown to be biochemically independent and to have different properties. Unlike the 521 mmicro pigment, for example, the 478 mmicro pigment was found to resist the action of NH(2)OH and, within the cells, to be unaffected by sucrose solutions. These solutions destroyed or altered the 521 system so that extracts of sucrose-treated retinae were found to contain significantly less 521 photopigment. In digitonin solution the 521 pigment was unaffected by sucrose treatment. Both pigments were extracted from separated, washed outer segments and so are considered to be visual pigments. This dual system accounts for the spectral sensitivity of this gecko as determined by Denton. A search was made, but no evidence was secured for the presence of a photopigment absorbing at longer wavelengths. Electoretinographic data suggest, however, that an elevated sensitivity at longer wavelengths occurs in some geckos so that a continued search is justified for a third photopigment.

Animals↗
PubMed1961

Correspondences in the behavior of the electroretinogram and of the potentials evoked at the visual cortex.

Electrical potentials from the eye (ERG) and from the contralateral visual cortex were recorded in response to flashes of white and of colored light of various intensities and durations. The evoked potentials were found to parallel the behavior of the ERG in several significant respects. Selective changes in the ERG brought about by increasing the light intensity and by light adaptation led to parallel selective changes in the cortical responses. The dual waves (b(1), b(2)) of the ERG were found to have counterparts in two cortical waves (c(1), c(2)) which, in respect to changes in light intensity and to light adaptation, behaved analogously to the two retinal components. The responses evoked at high intensity showed only the diphasic c(1)-potential. As stimulus intensity was lowered the c(1)-wave decreased in magnitude and a delayed c(2)-component appeared. The c(2)-potential increased in amplitude as light intensity of the flash was further reduced. Eventually the c(2)-wave, too, decreased as stimulus reduction continued. There was no wave length specificity in regard to either the duplex b-waves or duplex cortical waves. Both appeared at all wave lengths from 454 mmicro to 630 mmicro. The two cortical waves evoked by brief flashes of colored light showed all the behavior to changes in stimulus intensity and to light adaptation that occurred with white light.

Adaptation, Ocular↗
PubMed1956

The nature of the gecko visual pigment.

Retinal extracts of the Australian gecko, Phyllurus milii (White), have revealed the presence of a photosensitive pigment, unusual for terrestrial animals, because of its absorption maximum at 524 mmicro. This pigment has an absorption spectrum which is identical in form with that of other visual chromoproteins. It is not a porphyropsin, for bleaching revealed the presence, not of retinene(2), but of retinene(1) as a chromophore. Photolabile pigments with characteristics similar to those of the Phyllurus visual pigment were also detected in retinal extracts of six other species of nocturnal geckos. The presence of this retinal chromoprotein adequately accounts for the unusual visual sensitivity curve described by Denton for the nocturnal gecko. This pigment may have special biological significance in terms of the unique phylogenetic position of geckos as living representatives of nocturnal animals which retain some of the characteristics of their diurnal ancestors. The occurrence of this retinene(1) pigment, intermediate in spectral position between rhodopsin and iodopsin, is interpreted in support of the transmutation theory of Walls. The results and interpretation of this investigation point up the fact that, from a phylogenetic point of view, too great an emphasis on the duplicity theory may serve to detract attention from the evolutionary history of the retina and the essential unitarianism of the visual cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1956

The nature of the lamprey visual pigment.

From the retina of the land-locked population of the sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, a photolabile pigment was extracted which was identified spectrophotometrically as a member of the rhodopsin group of pigments. Using the absorption spectrum of a relatively pure solution and analysis by means of difference spectra, the peak of this pigment was placed at about 497 mmicro. The method of selective bleaching by light of different wave lengths revealed no significant amounts of any other pigment in the extracts. A similar pigment was also detected in retinal extracts of the Pacific Coast lamprey, Entospenus tridentatus. These results are significant for two reasons: (a) the lamprey is shown to be an example of an animal which spawns in fresh water but which is characterized by the presence of rhodopsin, rather than porphyropsin, in the retina; (b) the primitive phylogenetic position of the lamprey suggests that rhodopsin was the visual pigment of the original vertebrates.

Animals↗