Mol Cell: new protein structure reveals the molecular mechanism of vision formation

October 3, 2019 / BIOON / -- recently, researchers have obtained the three-dimensional structure of vertebrate visual protein complex at the level of atomic resolution, which is of wide significance to our understanding of biological signal transduction process and the design of related drugs These findings illustrate how signals from photons (light particles) can be amplified in the eye What's more, this study explains how the G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) plays a role in humans "GPCRs are involved in almost all biological processes of the human body, including our perception of light, taste, smell, heart rate regulation or muscle contraction - they are the targets of more than 30% of drugs." Yang Gao, the lead author of the paper and professor of chemical biology at Richard cerione's laboratory, said (image source: www Pixabay Com) in this study, the researchers used a frozen electron microscope to obtain the atomic resolution structure of rhodopsin transducing protein complex These structures not only provide the molecular basis of vertebrate vision, but also reveal a new mechanism of how GPCR usually activates G protein "What we have learned from the structure of resolution at the atomic level may be widely applicable to other GPCR signal systems," said Sekar Ramachandran, another co lead author By learning more about how different receptors are specifically coupled to different G proteins, researchers hope to gain insight into the design of drugs that specifically regulate GPCR signaling Sources of information: molecular basis of vision reviewed original sources: Yang Gao, Hongli Hu, Sekar Ramachandran, Jon W Erickson, Richard A cerione, Georgios skinitis Structures of the rhodopsin transforming complex: insights into G-protein activation Molecular cell, 2019; 75 (4): 781 doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2019.06.007