Kirill Martemyanov Lab retweetledi
What do you get when #NationalProteinDay and #NationalPokémonDay meet? Pikachurin. ⚡
A 2023 @scisignal study solved the structure of this extracellular protein that plays an essential role in vision.
In the retina, light is perceived by photoreceptor cells that transmit signals to neurons called bipolar cells, which in turn relay the signal to the retinal ganglion cells that form the optic nerve. The activation of bipolar cells by photoreceptor cells depends on the precise positioning of multiprotein complexes on the surfaces of both cell types.
Pikachurin is an extracellular matrix protein that bridges these complexes by making contacts with the membrane protein dystroglycan on the photoreceptor cell and the receptor GPR179 on the bipolar cell, thus ensuring that photoreceptor cells are properly aligned with the bipolar cells.
Learn more: scim.ag/41dTWIP
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