Eyes viewed from the skin | Nature

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Many vertebrates and invertebrates have cells in the skin which react to light by dispersing or aggregating intracellular pigment granules.

Even in a dish, such cells act like chameleons and change their shading according to the light1. A study by Provencio _et al._, published last month in _Proceedings of the National Academy

of Sciences_2, now shows that light-sensitive pigment cells in frog skin, called melanophores, express a molecule, melanopsin, which is similar to the rhodopsins used to detect light in the

eye. Melanopsin is also expressed in several other cell types known or thought to be light-sensitive in the frog, including cells in the iris, non-image-forming photoreceptor cells in the

retina, and hypothalamic neurons which may be involved in controlling responses to day/night cycles. All this is hardly unexpected. Rather, the real surprise comes in Provencio and

colleagues' finding that melanopsin is more closely related to the rhodopsins in invertebrate eyes (particularly of scallop, squid and octopus) than to those in vertebrate eyes,

including the frog's own eyes. This is an observation that raises several intriguing issues. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access

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subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES * Lerner, M. R. _Trends Neurosci_. 17, 142–146 (1994). Google Scholar  * Provencio, I., Jiang, G., De Grip, W. J., Hayes,

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_Science_ 265, 742–743 (1994). Google Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Heinz Arnheiter is in the Laboratory of Developmental Neurogenetics, National

Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Building 36, Room 5D06, 36 Convent Drive, Bethesda, 20892-4160, Maryland, USA Heinz Arnheiter Authors * Heinz Arnheiter View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Arnheiter, H. Eyes viewed from

the skin. _Nature_ 391, 632–633 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/35487 Download citation * Issue Date: 12 February 1998 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35487 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you

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