Monoclonal antibody-recognizing cone visual pigment

Monoclonal antibodies were raised to a crude photoreceptor-membrane suspension from chicken retinas. Clones producing antibodies against cone outer segments were selected by screening with immunocytochemistry on semithin sections of the retina. One monoclonal antibody, called COS-1, specifically labelled outer segments of double cones and one type of single cones; outer segments of rods and several single cones were not stained. On immunoblots of retinal photoreceptor membranes, this antibody recognized a protein with an apparent molecular mass of 33,000. The visual pigment character of the 33,000 protein was indirectly established by another monoclonal antibody, OS-2, which labelled all outer segments on semithin sections and four bands (33,000-, 36,000-, 38,000-40,000- and a composite band between 66,000-72,000 MW) on immunoblots. Of these, the 36,000- and the 72,000 MW protein bands were identified with an anti-rhodopsin polyclonal antibody as rhodopsin monomer and dimer. Monoclonal antibody OS-2 is assumed therefore to represent an antibody against a common epitope of all visual pigments of the chicken. The monoclonal antibody COS-1 was found to bind to certain cone outer segments of many other vertebrate species as well.