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Acknowledgments
We thank Y. Yasutake for his helpful discussions and Y. Miura for sequencing of plasmids. We Staurosporine also grateful to all members of our research groups for their help and valuable suggestions. This work was supported in part by the Project on Development of Basic Technologies for Advanced Production Methods Using Microorganism Functions by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
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Keywords
Euglena gracilis; Photoreception; Photoreceptor; Primary photoevent; Intramolecular photo-switch; Intermolecular energy transfer; Rhodopsin-like proteins; FLIM; FRET
Introduction
The photoreceptor of the unicellular alga Euglenagracilis can be defined as a prototypic eye according to the Darwin’s definition as reported by Gehring [1]. This “eye” is formed within a single cell by the assembly of photoreceptive and pigmented molecules into two distinct organelles, i.e., the photoreceptor and the eyespot, within that cell. The photoreceptor is detectable by light microscopy as a distinct organelle about of 1–2 μm3 in close association with the eyespot, a red-orange pigmented organelle about of 3–4 μm3, which acts as a screen device [2].