Secret To Night Vision Found In DNA’s Unconventional ‘Architecture’

photo credit: Sweet Evie

Now I know why my cat never stubs her toe on the way to the kitchen at night, like I do.

I'll go ahead and admit that I only vaguely understand this:  "[...] the DNA within the photoreceptor rod cells responsible for low light vision is packaged in a very unconventional way [...] That special DNA architecture turns the rod cell nuclei themselves into tiny light-collecting lenses, with millions of them in every nocturnal eye."

I heard NPR's "Science Friday" discussing this discovery a few days ago (you can listen to it here - http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200904172). I understood the researcher to say that discovering that the packaging of the DNA affects its expression was remarkable in itself.  It would appear that DNA shows up differently in different physical forms, kind of like the way a song on a CD sounds different from the same song on a cassette.

Read the full report of the discovery here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090416125159.htm