The primary process of vision and the structure of bathorhodopsin: A mechanism for photoisomerization of polyenes

Abstract

A model for the primary process of vision is proposed, which involves a novel concerted-twist motion. Application of such motions to rhodopsin and bathorhodopsin successfully accounts for the properties of bathorhodopsin and related intermediates, including specific assignment of molecular structures to bathorhodopsin, to lumirhodopsin, and, less specifically, to hypsorhodopsin.