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The key biochemical process of the vertebrate visual cycle required for rhodopsin regeneration, 11-cis-retinoid production from all-trans-retinoids, is shown to occur in vitro. A 600 X g supernatant from a frog retina/pigment epithelium homogenate transforms added all-trans-3Hretinol, in a time-dependent fashion, to a mixture of 11-cis-retinol, 11-cis-retinal, and 11-cis-retinyl palmitate. 13-cis-Retinoids are formed in only minor amounts by nonspecific processes. Studies using washed particulate fractions of the 600 X g supernatant indicate that all-trans-3Hretinol is isomerized to 11-cis-retinoids much more effectively than is all-trans-3Hretinal or all-trans-3Hretinyl palmitate. The 11-cis-retinoid biosynthetic activity is heat-labile, sedimentable by high-speed centrifugation, and largely found in the pigment epithelium rather than in the neural retina.
Bernstein et al. (Wed,) studied this question.