Biophysical Modeling of a Drosophila Photoreceptor

It remains unclear how visual information is co-processed by different layers of neurons in the retina. In particular, relatively little is known how retina translates vast environmental light changes into neural responses of limited range. We began examining this question in a bottom-up way in a relatively simple fly eye. To gain understanding of how complex bio-molecular interactions govern the conversion of light input into voltage output (phototransduction), we are building a biophysical model of the Drosophila R1-R6 photoreceptor. Our model, which relates molecular dynamics of the underlying biochemical reactions to external light input, attempts to capture the molecular dynamics of phototransduction gain control in a quantitative way.