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From: msw1633@zeus.tamu.edu (WHITSITT, MARK STEVEN)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Primary colors in human color vision
Summary: A little more information
Message-ID: <13701@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 25 Mar 91 06:38:12 GMT
References: <00945FE5.1F9B5480@aclcb.purdue.edu> <1991Mar23.193006.22992@pinhead.pegasus.com> <1991Mar24.002117.24100@medisg.Stanford.EDU>
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In article <1991Mar24.002117.24100@medisg.Stanford.EDU>, vangeldr@cmgm.Stanford.EDU (Russ Van Gelder) writes...
>....  Equally intriguing is understanding how the cone
>pigments "tune" the retinal; it is the same photoisomerization of
>11-cis retinal to all trans which is the essential act of
>photoreception in all three cone rhodopsins.  Something about the
>particular side-chains in the vicinity of the retinal must influence
>the absorption spectrum of the molecule; Jeremy Nathans (who worked
>out much of the molecular biology and genetics of human color vision)
>has been making site-directed mutants of the color opsins and thinks
>that the relative localization of charge on the retinal is responsible
>for its spectral absorbance.

The idea that the opsin side chains "tune" the retinal then suggests many 
interesting variations on color perception.  Consider an individual "A" 
having a mutation in one of his/her opsins which tunes the retinal differently 
than that of individual "B".  Would placing A's eyes in B make B see colors 
differently than he/she did before?  That is, would a familiar shade of, say, 
red, be perceived as a different shade of "red" with respect to the color 
individual B was accustomed to?  What do ya think?



Mark S. Whitsitt, N5RJF        Texas A&M University, Dept of Biochemistry
Bitnet:  MSW1633@TAMSIGMA  		  College Station, Tx. 77843-2128
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