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Lem Laboratory (380 words) |
 | A second objective of studies in the Lem lab are to investigate the role of transducin in retinal degenerative disease and phototransduction signaling mechanisms. |
| Using a transducin knockout mouse produced in our lab, we are studying transducin mutants with defects in their ability to interact with a member of the family of RGS (regulator of G-protein signaling) proteins and the inhibitory PDE subunit. |
| The transducin knockout mouse is also being used to test the ‘equivalent light hypothesis’, which proposes that some cases of RP cause retinal degeneration by mimicking continuous light exposure in the absence of light. |
| transducin | English | Dictionary & Translation by Babylon (184 words) |
| Transducin (also called Gt) is a heterotrimeric G protein that is naturally expressed in vertebrate retina rods and cones (a different Transducin gene is expressed in each cell type). |
| Heterotrimeric Transducin (alpha-beta-gamma subunits) is activated by a conformational change in rhodopsin due to the adsorption of a photon by rhodopsin's active group retinal; Activation causes the GDP bound to the alpha subunit to be exchanged with GTP from solution and results in activated alpha dissociating from beta-gamma. |
| The termination of Transducin activity occurs when (active) GTP bound Transducin is hydrolyzed to Transducin-GDP, a process which is accelerated by a complex containing an RGS (Regulator of G-protein signaling)-protein and the gamma-subunit of the effector, cyclic GMP Phosphodiesterase. |
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