Effects of monensin on photoreceptors of isolated frog retinas

Monensin induces the vacuolization of the Golgi apparatus in photoreceptors of isolated frog retinas and also, more slowly, produces a vacuolization of the pre-synaptic terminals. Accompanying these effects is an inhibition of transport of protein to the outer segment so that the radioactive bands normally detectable by autoradiography do not form. Monensin thus promises to be a useful tool in the study of intracellular transport in photoreceptors. The findings reported here indicate that impairment of the functioning of the Golgi apparatus considerably diminishes transport of membrane protein to the rod outer segment suggesting that passage through the Golgi apparatus is an obligatory step for completion of outer segment membrane or its transport to the outer segment.