Rhodopsin and retinochrome in the retina of a marine gastropod, Conomulex luhuanus.

Photopigments in the conch retina were examined with special attention given to the photic vesicles characteristic of gastropod photoreceptors. Three different fractions of visual cell fragments were prepared from the retina: the MV-fraction containing the rhabdomal microvilli, and the PVH- and PVL-fractions containing the photic vesicles located in the visual cell body. Rhodopsin was found in the MV-fraction (lambda max = 474 nm), and yielded a photoequilibrium mixture with metarhodopsin (lambda max = 512 nm) on irradiation with blue light. Retinochrome was found in both of the PVH- and PVL-fractions (lambda max = approximately 510 nm), and was bleached into metaretinochrome by exposure to orange light, showing no marked shift of the absorption peak. Unlike the PVH-fraction, the PVL-fraction contains much aporetinochrome in addition to retinochrome, suggesting that the large mass of photic vesicles around the nucleus may serve as storage for retinal in retinochrome and for newly synthesized aporetinochrome. The total amount of retinochrome in the retina was several times higher than that of rhodopsin, distinguishing the gastropod eye from the cephalopod eye.