Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Either of two yellow to red retinal pigments, formed by oxidation of vitamin A alcohols.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun biochemistry Either of two
carotenoid pigments found in theretina and produced fromvitamin A ;retinal
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun either of two yellow to red retinal pigments formed from rhodopsin by the action of light
Etymologies
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Examples
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Nevertheless in that period, after dissecting retinas from 300 frogs, he found that rhodopsin on stimulation with light yielded both the protein opsin and a compound he called "retinene" (now "retinaldehyde") that in turn yielded vitamin A (now called retinol).
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Retinene can exist in two forms, different in molecular shape, called cis-retinene and trans-retinene.
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In the dark, trans-retinene changes into cis-retinene and joins opsin once more to form the rhodopsin.
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If the diet is deficient in vitamin A, the body's stores eventually give out and retinene is not replaced as it is lost.
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Vitamin A, which is more stable, is, however, easily converted into retinene, so that the vitamin A stores of the body can be called upon to replace the constant dribbling loss of this visual pigment.
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In the presence of light, cis-retinene is converted to trans-retinene and, if it already makes up part of the rhodopsin molecule, it falls off, leaving the largely colorless opsin behind.
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The shape of cis-retinene is such that it can combine with opsin to form rhodopsin, whereas trans-retinene cannot.
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