Researchers find new light-sensing mechanism in neurons: For more than 100 years, it had been believed that the phototransduction process was solely based on a chemical derived from vitamin A called retinal. Phototransduction is the conversion of light signals into electrical signals in photoreceptive neurons and underlies both image-forming and non-image-forming light sensing.
In discovering this new light-sensing phototransduction mechanism, the UCI scientists found that phototransduction can also be mediated by a protein called cryptochrome, which uses a B2 vitamin chemical derivative for light sensing. Cryptochromes are blue-light photor
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