LARGE INTRINSIC MEMBRANE-PROTEIN IN ROD OUTER SEGMENTS - INVITRO SYNTHESIS IN CATTLE, AND COMPARISON IN HUMANS AND RABBITS

Throughout life, vertebrate photoreceptor discs are continually being renewed at the base, and discarded from the tip, of the outer segment. In the frog, in vivo studies indicate this renewal process includes both rhodopsin and a large intrinsic membrane protein, which is found on the margins and incisures of discs. In this paper, I examine the same events in the cattle retina in vitro, and show there is a similar large intrinsic membrane protein in cattle, which is rapidly synthesized and incorporated into rod outer segment preparations. Human and rabbit photoreceptor outer segments are also shown to possess a large intrinsic membrane protein. © 1979.