Dichroism of Photosensitive Pigment in Rhabdoms of the Crayfish Orconectes

Microspectrophotometric measurements of isolated crayfish rhabdoms illuminated transversely show that their photosensitive absorption exhibits a dichroic ratio of 2 in situ. The major absorption axis matches the axial direction of the closely parallel microvilli comprising the receptor organelle. Since these microvilli are regularly oriented transversely in about 24 layers, with the axes of the microvilli at 90 degrees in alternate layers, transverse illumination of a properly oriented rhabdom displays alternate dichroic and isotropic bands. Because all the microvilli from any one cell share the same orientation, the layers of microvilli constitute two sets of orthogonal polarization analyzers when illuminated along the normal visual axis. Furthermore, since the dichroic ratio is 2 and transverse absorption in isotropic bands is the same as that in the minor absorbing axis of dichroic bands, the simplest explanation of the analyzer action is that the absorbing dipoles of the chromophores, as in rod and cone outer segments, lie parallel to the membrane surface but are otherwise randomly oriented. The rhabdom's functional dichroism thus arises from its specific fine structural geometry.