Piecing together the timetable for visual transduction with transgenic animals.

Transgenic mice bearing null or functional mutations are being used to define the roles of specific elements in phototransduction and also to time the molecular interactions. Genetic manipulation of the collision frequency between rhodopsin and transducin molecules identified this parameter as rate-limiting for the photoresponse onset. Genetic interference with rhodopsin phosphorylation and arrestin binding, transducin shut-off and calcium feedback has revealed their respective roles in shaping the response waveform. The timetable for all of these molecular events determines the amplitude, kinetics and reproducibility of the photoresponse.