Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 16, 2026

Preparation of Living Isolated Vertebrate Photoreceptor Cells for Fluorescence Imaging
Published on: June 22, 2011
Light detection and signal transduction in the BLUF photoreceptors
1Center for Biological Resources and Informatics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan. shmasuda@bio.titech.ac.jp
Abstract:
BLUF (sensor of blue light using FAD) domain-containing proteins are one of three types of flavin-binding, blue-light-sensing proteins found in many bacteria and some algae. The other types of blue-light-sensing proteins are the cryptochromes and the light, oxygen, voltage (LOV) domain-containing proteins. BLUF proteins control a wide variety of light-dependent physiological activities including photosystem synthesis, biofilm formation and the photoavoidance response. The BLUF domain photochemical reaction is unique in that only small chromophore structural changes are involved in the light activation process, because the rigid flavin moiety is involved, rather than an isomerizable chromophore (e.g. phytochromobilin in phytochromes and retinal in rhodopsins). Recent spectroscopic, biochemical and structural studies have begun to elucidate how BLUF domains transmit the light-induced signal and identify related, subsequent changes in the domain structures. Herein, I review progress made to date concerning the physiological functions and the phototransduction mechanism of BLUF proteins.
Related Concept Videos
Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways
Channel Rhodopsins
Rhodopsins belong to the family of cell surface proteins called G-protein coupled receptors,...
Photoreceptors and Plant Responses to Light
The Retina
Anatomy of the Eyeball
G-Protein Gated Ion Channels
Sensory organs,...

