Phosphodiesterase 6 (PDE6) is the effector enzyme in the phototransduction cascade and is
critical for the health of both rod and cone photoreceptors. Its dysfunction, caused by
mutations in either the enzyme itself or AIPL1 (aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein-
like 1), leads to retinal diseases culminating in blindness. Progress in research on PDE6
and AIPL1 has been severely hampered by failure to express functional PDE6 in a
heterologous expression system. Here, we demonstrated that AIPL1 is an obligate …