The distribution of the components of the cyclic GMP cycle in retina.

Frozen sections of retinas from rabbit (mostly rods), ground squirrel (mostly cones), and monkey (mixed rods and cones) were freeze dried, and samples from all the discrete layers analyzed for the enzymes which form cyclic GMP and subsequently convert it back to GTP. The distribution of cyclic GMP was also measured in monkey retina, and the retinal layers of both monkey and rabbit were analyzed for GTP, GTP plus GDP, ATP, ATP plus ADP, and UTP plus CTP. The ratio of guanylates to adenylates was found to be about 1:1 in photoreceptor cell layers, but only 1:4 or 5 in deeper layers. In all species, guanylate cyclase (EC 4.6.1.2) and cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase were highest in the outer segment layer. Other layers were lower by factors of 10 to 500. Guanylate kinase (EC 2.7.4.8) was extremely high in all photoreceptor cell layers except the outer segments, but was much lower elsewhere. Nucleoside diphosphokinase (EC 2.7.4.6) paralleled guanylate kinase throughout the photoreceptor cell layers, but did not fall to such low levels in the deeper layers of the retina. Although there were significant differences among the three species, they all displayed the same general enzyme pattern.