Temperature Dependence of Receptor Potential and Noise in Fly (Calliphora erythrocephala) Photoreceptor Cells

We investigated the effect of temperature on the response to light of photoreceptors of the blowfly Calliphora erythrocephala. The latency and the time-to-peak of the responses become shorter as the temperature increases; Q10 = 2.8 ± 0.6. The response amplitude is independent of the temperature in the temperature range of about 15-25°C; above this temperature range the amplitude slightly decreases. The power spectra of the voltage noise, measured at the steady state plateau potential, show that as the temperature is increased from 10 to 30°C the fraction of the power associated with higher frequencies also increases. This shift is interpreted with a shortening in the duration of the elementary voltage response (bump) with increasing temperature. The effective bump duration, inferred from the power spectra, has a Q10 of 2.5.