Topic summary
Ciliary opsin
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Opsin.
Ciliary opsins
Ciliary opsins (cilopsins, c-opsins) are expressed in ciliary photoreceptor cells, and include the vertebrate visual opsins and encephalopsins. They convert light signals to nerve impulses via cyclic nucleotide gated ion channels, which work by increasing the charge differential across the cell membrane (i.e. hyperpolarization.)