{"id":2445,"date":"2013-04-22T16:40:22","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T16:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2018\/12\/09\/2444-revision-v1\/"},"modified":"2019-07-14T01:43:14","modified_gmt":"2019-07-14T01:43:14","slug":"opsins-not-just-for-eyes-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/04\/22\/opsins-not-just-for-eyes-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Science Review: Opsins – Not Just for Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"
A News Focus<\/a> covering a trend identified at a conference: opsins (light-responsive GPCRs) are found in myriad tissues, including\u00a0primitive\u00a0phylogenies (incl. sea-urchins and jellyfish). These researches have led to an increased appreciation of the variety of roles opsins may serve:<\/div>\n
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    Light-responsive roles (cf. vision) (e.g. modulating likelihood of stinging cells firing in hydra).<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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    Part of multi-modal sensory cells (i.e. that integrate factors including light., e.g. and taste to provide a decision making that is less defined than any clearly delineated “sense”).<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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    A suggestion that they may serve light-independent functions, as in mechanosensation required for hearing in Drosophila. [without further evidence, the fact of this particular case being “light-independent” seems presumptuous] or for Drosophila larvae heat-preference.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    The most interesting thing to me, here, is the range of the continuum of a sense<\/strong>. Consider the range between an opsin in a non-dedicated cell and an entire visual system.<\/div>\n
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      Consider a human\u00a0visual system, that includes multiple cortical visual areas, multi-sensory integration, specialized receptor cells per orientation, wavelength, etc. Note especially how paltry this limited summary is.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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      Consider\u00a0opsins in non-specialized cells, whether that be some sort of multi-sensory cell (e.g. that qualifies the environment for the organism) or as an input-modifier to some other specialized cell (e.g. to alter the likelihood of activation).<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      To do here: elaborate on the concept of “continuum of a sense” (and: does evolution act on Ideas?)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      A News Focus covering a trend identified at a conference: opsins (light-responsive GPCRs) are found in myriad tissues, including\u00a0primitive\u00a0phylogenies (incl. sea-urchins and jellyfish). These researches have led to an increased appreciation of the variety of roles opsins may serve: Light-responsive roles (cf. vision) (e.g. modulating likelihood of stinging cells firing in hydra). Part of multi-modal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,206,242,16,17],"tags":[],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-2445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-biology","category-evernote-entries","category-science","category-science-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2473,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/04\/12\/science-review-continuum-of-senses-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2445,"position":0},"title":"Science Review: Continuum of senses","author":"Pala","date":"April 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A News Focus covering a trend identified at a conference: opsins (light-responsive GPCRs) are found in myriad tissues, including\u00a0primitive\u00a0phylogenies (incl. sea-urchins and jelly-fish). 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