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Updated: Jul 30, 2026

Strategic Screening and Characterization of the Visual GPCR-mini-G Protein Signaling Complex for Successful Crystallization
Published on: March 16, 2020
Crystal structure of rhodopsin: a template for cone visual pigments and other G protein-coupled receptors
R E Stenkamp1, S Filipek, C A G G Driessen
1Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Abstract:
The crystal structure of rhodopsin has provided the first three-dimensional molecular model for a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). Alignment of the molecular model from the crystallographic structure with the helical axes seen in cryo-electron microscopic (cryo-EM) studies provides an opportunity to investigate the properties of the molecule as a function of orientation and location within the membrane. In addition, the structure provides a starting point for modeling and rational experimental approaches of the cone pigments, the GPCRs in cone cells responsible for color vision. Homology models of the cone pigments provide a means of understanding the roles of amino acid sequence differences that shift the absorption maximum of the retinal chromophore in the environments of different opsins.
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