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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1988 Jul;85(14):5315–5319. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.14.5315

L-glutamate-induced depolarization in solitary photoreceptors: a process that may contribute to the interaction between photoreceptors in situ.

M Tachibana 1, A Kaneko 1
PMCID: PMC281741  PMID: 2899327

Abstract

L-Glutamate is a leading candidate for the vertebrate photoreceptor transmitter. In addition to the signal transmission to second-order neurons, photoreceptors communicate with each other not only electrically but also chemically. In the present study, by using solitary turtle photoreceptors, we examined the possibility that L-glutamate mediates interreceptor communication. L-Glutamate evoked an inward current in all subtypes of photoreceptors voltage-clamped to the resting potential. The highest glutamate sensitivity was located at the axon terminal. Both stereoisomers of aspartate were effective, whereas kainate, quisqualate, N-methyl-D-aspartate, and D-glutamate were ineffective. The presence of Na+ was essential to response generation; even Li+ could not substitute for Na+. The relation between L-glutamate-induced current and the membrane voltage was strongly inward-rectifying. These results favor the hypothesis that the L-glutamate-induced response is generated by an electrogenic uptake carrier. However, L-glutamate-induced current was always accompanied by an increase in current fluctuations, a phenomenon commonly observed in ion channels but not expected for an uptake carrier. Although the underlying mechanism needs further elucidation, it seems likely that L-glutamate is a transmitter for communication between photoreceptors.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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