Retinol Dehydrogenase 10 (RDH10)

RDH10 generates all-trans retinal from all-trans retinol and may plan an important role in the photic visual cycle. All-trans retinal is isomerized to 11-cis retinal by the retinal G protein-coupled receptor (RGR) when the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is illuminated.

The deduced 341-amino acid RDH10 protein has a calculated molecular mass of about 38 kD. It shares significant sequence homology with other SDRs, and it shares 100% and 98.6% amino acid identity with the bovine and murine Rdh10 proteins, respectively. Northern blot analysis of bovine tissues detected a 3-kb transcript only in RPE. Real-time PCR revealed high expression in RPE and low expression in most other tissues tested.