Seasonal change in the amount of visual pigment in the retinae of fish

Abstract

The total amount of two visual pigments, rhodopsin and porphyropsin, extracted from retinal photoreceptors of three trouts and a cyprinid, changes seasonally. In Salmo gairdneri, Salmo trutta, and Salvelinus fontinalis maintained in an outdoor raceway at constant temperature (8 °C) the total amount of visual pigment increased about twofold during the winter, though the proportions of rhodopsin and porphyropsin were relatively unchanged. In eastern common shiners, Notropis cornutis, sampled from a stream, visual pigment increased by about fourfold in winter as compared with summer, and porphyropsin rose from about 17 to 68% of the total amount. A later sample of summer and winter shiners revealed no difference in the density of visual pigment within individual rods.An increased amount of visual pigment will broaden the overall pigment absorptance spectrum and a concomitant increase in porphyropsin will further broaden and shift absorptance toward longer wavelengths. Thus, change in total amount of visual pigment represents a new dimension in the way that visual pigment absorptance can be dynamically altered in certain fishes.