1. Photoreceptor Cells in Flies and Mammals
Andrew P. Kowalczyk, Kevin Moses 
Developmental Cell 
Volume 2, Issue 3, Pages (March 2002)
DOI: /S (02)

2. Figure 1 Specialized Apical Membrane Domains and Proteins
(A) Comparison of the membrane topologies of fly and mammalian photoreceptor cells. Drosophila opsin (purple) is in the rhabdomere, a subregion of the apical membrane made up of many microvillae. The rhabdomere is supported and delimited by the stalk (red), where Crumbs protein is localized. The stalk is adjacent and apical to the zonula adherens (green), which contains Armadillo. The mammalian cone photoreceptor is most similar to the fly rhabdomeric photoreceptor with the opsin (purple) in the apical discs, in the “outer segment” (OS) of the cell. As in the fly, this photosensitive membrane is apical to the ZA (green) and is separated by a membrane domain containing a Crumbs homolog (CRB1; red) in the OS and the “inner segment” (IS). Unlike the fly's rhabdomere, the mammalian cone outer segment is supported by a ciliary body (CB). In the rod photoreceptor, the discs are pinched off to become internalized in the rod outer segment. Thus there is no adjacent CRB1-bearing membrane other than just apical to the ZA. Blue arrows indicate cross sections.
(B) Three functional regions of the photoreceptor apical membrane domain compared in Drosophila (left) and mammals (right). Opsin (purple) is in the most apical compartment (fly rhabdomere and mammalian disc membrane). The opsin-bearing membrane compartment is delimited by a specialized subcompartment (fly “stalk” and mammalian marginal zone; MZ) which requires Crumbs/CRB1 and associated proteins (shades of red). Crumbs may act through homophilic binding outside the cell (indicated as “?”). The stalk/MZ lies apical to the zonula adherens (ZA) in which transmembrane cadherin (CD) homodimers link cells and connect to the intracellular actin cytoskeleton via Armadillo and other proteins (shades of green). The outside of the cell is topologically equivalent to the disc lumen in rod photoreceptors and is called the “interrhabdomeral space” (IRS) in flies.
Developmental Cell 2002 2, DOI: ( /S (02) )