Why the Anomalous Dichroism of Rhodopsin in Retinal Receptors?
December 23rd, 2006 | No Comments »I have written noting this in the main body of the work but perhaps it is time to reiterate!
Reading a paper “Light Antennas in Phototactic Algae” by Foster and Smyth (Microbiological Reviews, Dec.1980, pp 572-630) ..an interesting paper treating light as a classical wave that analyzes the ability of various algae specie to orient themselves to the direction of incident light. In this discourse they note (p 584):
“Dichroism also occurs in the rhodopsin membranes of vertebrate photoreceptors and contributes significantly to their absorption. In these membranes, the transition moments of the rhodopsin molecules lie approximately parallel to the plane of the membrane and are randomly oriented within the plane (ref)”
Why would this be so if the traditional view of retinal light interaction were true, namely that photons are supposed to be incident parallel to the axis of receptor? Wouldn’t this transition moment be oriented in that direction instead of orthogonally?
I note that the traditional explanation is followed by the preposterous “photon catch” hypothesis where the function of the ‘coin stack’ of rhodopsin membranes within the receptor (with their illogical orthogonally- oriented transition moments!) is supposed to serve a statistical function - to ‘catch’ photons!
The reason for the orthogonal orientation of rhodopsin is explained by, and is consistent with, my explanation for light interaction. Light interacts as a wave between receptors imparting energy along their length (probably via evanescent wave phenomena) to effect a directional logic function. The stack of rhodopsin membrane have a specific defined function!
?????????
GCH
12/23/06
