The world's first wiki where authorship really matters (Nature Genetics, 2008). Due credit and reputation for authors. Imagine a global collaborative knowledge base for original thoughts. Search thousands of articles and collaborate with scientists around the globe.
Role of Peripherin/rds in Vertebrate Photoreceptor Architecture and Inherited Retinal Degenerations.
The vertebrate photoreceptor outer segment (OS) is a highly structured and dynamic organelle specialized to transduce light signals. The elaborate membranous architecture of the OS requires peripherin/rds (P/rds), an integral membrane protein and tetraspanin protein family member. Gene-level defects in P/rds cause a broad variety of late-onset progressive retinal degenerations in humans and dysmorphic photoreceptors in murine and Xenopus models. Although proposed to fulfill numerous roles related to OS structural stability and renewal, P/rds molecular function remains uncertain. An increasingly resolved model of this protein's oligomeric structure can account for disease inheritance patterns and severity in some instances. Nonetheless, the pathogenic mechanisms underlying the uniquely broad spectrum of retinal diseases associated with P/rds defects are not currently well understood. Recent findings point to the possibility that P/rds acts as a multifunctional scaffolding protein for OS architecture and that partial-loss-of-function mutations contribute to the hallmark phenotypic heterogeneity associated with inherited defects in RDS.[1]References
- Role of Peripherin/rds in Vertebrate Photoreceptor Architecture and Inherited Retinal Degenerations. Goldberg, A.F. Int. Rev. Cytol. (2006) [Pubmed]
Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenesOpen Access LicencePrivacy PolicyTerms of Use
