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The photosensitivities of the bovine rhodopsin and gecko pigment 521 analogues regenerated from C-10-substituted analogues of 11-cis- and 9-cis-retinals were determined by two different methods. A similar reactivity trend was noted for both pigment systems as revealed in the photosensitivity of the gecko pigments and relative quantum yields of the bovine analogues. The 10-fluoro-11-cis photopigments had a photosensitivity less than, but approaching, that of the native (11-cis) visual pigment while the 10-fluoro-9-cis photopigments had a much lower photosensitivity than the parent 9-cis regenerated pigment. The results are interpreted in terms of recently described models of rhodopsin architecture and of the primary molecular reaction of visual pigments to light. The unusually low photoreactivity of the 10-fluoro-9-cis pigment molecule is viewed as the result of a regiospecific hydrogen-bonding interaction of the electronegative fluorine atom to the opsin.

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Visual pigments were extracted from the retinas of 8 species of marine teleosts and 4 species of elasmobranchs and a comparison was made of the pigment properties from these fishes, some inhabiting surface waters, others from the mesopelagic zone, and a few migrating vertically between these two environments. An association was found between the spectral position of the absorbance curve and the habitat depth or habitat behavior, with the blue-shifted chrysopsins being the pigments of the twilight zone fishes and the rhodopsins with fishes living near the surface. The retina of the swell shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum) yielded extracts with two photopigments; one, a rhodopsin at 498 nm; the second, a chrysopsin at 478 nm. This fish has been reported to practice seasonal vertical migrations between the surface and the mesopelagic waters. In addition to the spectral absorbance, several properties of these visual pigments were examined, including the meta-III product of photic bleaching, regeneration with added 11-cis and 9-cis retinals, and the chromophoric photosensitivity. The chrysopsin properties were found to be fundamentally similar to those of typical vertebrate rhodopsins. Correlating the spectral data with the habitat and habitat behavior of our fishes gives us confidence in the idea that the scotopic pigments have evolved as adaptations to those aspects of their color environment that are critical to the survival of the species.

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