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. 2014 Aug 11;289(39):26743–26751. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M114.558619

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© 2014 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

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FIGURE 1. — Diagram of the visual cycle. The chromophore, 11-cis-retinal (11cRAL), in visual pigments is isomerized to all-trans-retinal (atRAL) by light, which triggers the phototransduction cascade. atRAL is then released from opsin and reduced to all-trans-retinol (atROL) by an all-trans-retinol dehydrogenase (At-RDH). All-trans-retinol in photoreceptors is transported to the RPE and esterified to all-trans-retinyl ester (atRE) by lecithin retinol acyltransferase (LRAT). All-trans-retinyl ester is converted to 11cROL by the isomerohydrolase RPE65 and further oxidized to 11-cis-retinal by an 11-cis-retinol dehydrogenase (11c-RDH). Finally, regenerated 11-cis-retinal is transported back to photoreceptors and binds to opsin protein to form visual pigment.