Table 2. Comparison of photoreceptor properties of wild type mice.
Key molecules of the cone phototransduction cascade such as mouse cone ultraviolet (MUV) pigment, cone transducin (Gtα2), mouse cone arrestin (mCarr), and cone sheath stainable peanut agglutinin (PNA) were identified to confirm the isolated photoreceptors as cone cells as opposed to rod cells that lacked staining of these molecular markers. Wild type cones displayed a low level of staining for “rod” arrestin.
| Feature | Wild type S-Cones1 | Wild type Rods1 |
|---|---|---|
| Ultrastructure | ||
| OS length (μm) | 13.4 ± 0.7 | 23.6 ± 0.4 |
| OS width (μm) | 1.2 ± 0.03 | 1.4 ± 0.1 |
| OS volume (μm3) | 14 | 36 |
| Open discs | >15 | 5–7 |
| Mitochondrial length (μm) | 1.31 ± 0.7 | 2.20 ± 0.7 |
| Histology | ||
| Chromatin clumping | Yes | No |
| PNA-stained OS sheath | Yes | No |
| Molecular | ||
| MUV | Yes | No |
| Gtα2 | Yes | No |
| mCarr | Yes | No |
| Arrestin | Yes, low level | Yes |
| ERG a-wave | ||
| λmax (nm) | 360 | 500 |
| lpeak (ms) | Unknown | 140 |