Different phosphorylation rates among vertebrate cone visual pigments with different spectral sensitivities

Cone photoreceptor subtypes having different spectral sensitivities exhibit different recovery kinetics in their photoresponses in some vertebrates. Phosphorylation by G protein-coupled receptor kinase (GRK) is essential for the rapid inactivation of light-activated visual pigment, which is the rate-limiting step of the cone photoresponse recovery in salamander. In this study we compared the rate of light-dependent phosphorylation by GRK7 of carp green- and blue-sensitive cone visual pigments. Blue pigment was phosphorylated significantly less effectively than green pigment, suggesting that the difference in the pigment phosphorylation rate is responsible for the difference in photoresponse kinetics among cone photoreceptor subtypes.