Phototransduction is initiated by the photoisomerization of rhodopsin (Rho) chromophore 11-cis-retinylidene to all-trans-retinylidene. Here, using Rho regenerated with retinal analogs with different ring sizes, which prevent isomerization around the C 11 ؍C 12 double bond, the activation mechanism of this G-protein-coupled receptor was investigated. We demonstrate that 11-cis-7-ring-Rho does not activate G-protein in vivo and in vitro, and that it does not isomerize along other double bonds, suggesting that it fits tightly into the binding site of opsin. In contrast, bleaching 11-cis-6-ring-Rho modestly activates phototransduction in vivo and at low pH in vitro. These results reveal that partial activation is caused by isomerization along other double bonds in more rigid 6-locked retinal isomers and protonation of key residues by lowering pH in 11-cis-6-ring-Rhos. Full activation is not achieved, because isomerization does not induce a complete set of conformational rearrangements of Rho. These results with 6-and 7-ringconstrained retinoids provide new insights into Rho activation and suggest a potential use of locked retinals, particularly 11-cis-7-ring-retinal, to inactivate opsin in some retinal degeneration diseases.In vertebrate retinal photoreceptor cells, isomerization of the visual pigment chromophore, 11-cis-retinal to all-trans-retinal, triggers a set of reactions collectively termed the phototransduction cascade (1, 2). The phototransduction events are initiated by activated rhodopsin (Rho*) 1 and progress through a classical G-protein cascade, ultimately leading to neuronal signaling. Metarhodopsin II (or Meta II, Rho*), the catalytically active intermediate generated by photoisomerization of Rho chromophore, contains all-trans-retinal covalently bound to Lys 296 of opsin via the deprotonated Schiff base. Subsequently, Meta II undergoes reprotonation, and the photolyzed chromophore is hydrolyzed and released from opsin (3-5). The precise mechanism of Rho activation by the photoisomerized chromophore is unknown (6).The photobleaching process of rhodopsin has been investigated using retinal analogs that contained an extra ring between C 10 and C 13 , making retinal non-isomerizable around the 11-cis double bond (7-12). An artificial visual pigment with restricted C 9 -C 11 motion forms normal photolysis intermediates (13), suggesting an importance of C 11 ϭC 12 bond isomerization in the activation of Rho. More recently, it was reported that after photoisomerization, the -ionone ring of the chromophore moves to a new position during the transition to Meta II (7). Jang et al. (14) showed using 6-ring-constrained retinal isomers and the crystal structure of Rho in the ground state (15) that if this movement is restricted, only residual activity could be observed. Locked retinal analogs were also used to study visual transduction in vivo using vitamin A-deprived rats (16, 17). These animals had approximately half of the normal complement of rhodopsin, and injection of locked retinal led to the appearan...