An eye protein famed for seeing the light also feels the heat.
Rhodopsin, the retinal pigment that makes vision possible in extremely low light, also appears to help developing fruit flies detect minute differences in temperature. Fruit fly larvae that couldn’t make functioning rhodopsin stopped responding to slight differences in air temperature, researchers report in the March 11 Science.
The discovery raises questions about the original role of the ancient, well-studied pigment, versions of which are found in creatures from fungi to mammals, says molecular neuroscientist Craig Montell of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
“In a way, it’s mind boggling after all this time to discover a new role for it,” says Montell, who led the new research. Maybe the protein plays a role in thermosensation in other animals as well, he speculates.