Rods & Cones
Additional Background Information
Additional Background Information
A photoreceptor in the eye can be a rod or cone. These photoreceptors are specialized neurons in the initial step of vision. Photoreceptors are cells in the retina, responsible for turning light into signals sent to the brain that create the visual (Molday & Moritz 2015).
Rod photoreceptors function best in dim light. The Rod photoreceptors are scattered around the outer retina, aiding in peripheral vision. Rods have low visual acuity.
Cone photoreceptors function best in bright, vibrant light. Cone photoreceptors are capable of color vision. Cones are found in the Macula, the center of the retina.
Rods and cone photoreceptors share some similarities and differences. It is important to understand the foundation of what these photoreceptors are, to understand the evolutionary connections.
This figure is showing the steps in th evolution of the eye and the processes within those steps. A) is depicting the molecular evolution within the eye, displaying transduction across the opsin and ion channel. Transductionr efers to transfering gewnetic material from one to the other, shown perfectly in the figure. B) shows the evolution of the cell structures themselves. The cell structure shown is composed of 4 main parts, rthe synaptic terminal, sxon, screening pigment and membrane stacking. C) shows the evolutionof cell types, shown this is a evolved cell possesing a pigment cell. There are two main cell tyes hwen it comes to eyes, photorecptors & pigment, these cell type evolutions are thght to be from ancestral receptor cells (Nilsson, D.-E. (2009). D) is showing the eye as an organ shape evolution. This picture shows where each part within the organ are found and how they are anatomically placed.
Connecting it Together
As mentioned previously in the page, rod and cone photorecptors play a huge role in vision, and how vison works. The rod and cone phtorecptors are similar, but difffernt in their structure and function. Rods found in the outer retina, and sensitive to light thatsb how they developed to be best at dim/dark settings. Where cones found in the central retina, and thrive with quick wavelength reception and colored visual aid. The rods , Dichromatic vision were seen to have underwent mutation to create the Trichromatic vision.
Further in the website, these two distinguishing types of vision in mammals will be dissected, but in order to understand it, its integral to have an understanding what the foundation of the distinguished eye is, the photoreceptor.
Figure 2 in Nilsson, D.-E. (2009)
This represents The four processes:
(a, molecular components ;b,cell structures ;c, cell types ;d, organ shape) involved in eye-evolution. Understanding the components as-well as the breakdown of the processes involved in overall eye evolution are important in recognizing photoreceptors in the eye evolutionary aspects. Where the photoreceptors are found in the retina.The retina in these processes shown in (d) of fig. 2 organ shape. This helps to learning the anatomical position of the photoreceptors in relation to the eye.