This is the readme file for the model associated with the paper Dmitri E. Kourennyi,1 Xiao-dong Liu,1 Jason Hart,4 Farid Mahmud,4 William H. Baldridge,2,3 and Steven Barnes3,5 Reciprocal Modulation of Calcium Dynamics at Rod and Cone Photoreceptor Synapses by Nitric Oxide J Neurophysiol 92: 477–483, 2004. First published February 25, 2004; 10.1152/jn.00606.2003. 1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106; Departments of 2Anatomy and Neurobiology, 3Ophthalmology and Visual Science, and 5Physiology and Biophysics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4H7; and 4Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 4N1, Canada Abstract: The abundance of nitric oxide (NO) synthesizing enzymes identified in the vertebrate retina highlight the importance of NO as a signaling molecule in this tissue. Here we describe opposing actions of NO on the rod and cone photoreceptor synapse. Depolarization-induced increases of calcium concentration in rods and cones were enhanced and inhibited, respectively, by the NO donor S-nitrosocysteine. NO suppressed calcium current in cones by decreasing the maximum conductance, whereas NO facilitated rod Ca channel activation. NO also activated a nonselective voltageindependent conductance in both rods and cones. Suppression of NO production in the intact retina with NG-nitro-L-arginine favored cone over rod driven postsynaptic signals, as would be expected if NO enhanced rod and suppressed cone synaptic activity. These findings may imply involvement of NO in regulating the strength of rod and cone pathways in the retina during different states of adaptation. To use the model simply auto-launch from ModelDB or 1)download archive and expand the zip file, 2) compile the mod files with mknrndll (mswin) or nrnivmodl (unix/linux), and 3) start the program by double clicking the mosinit.hoc file (mswin), or by typing nrngui mosinit.hoc (unix). The simulation will reproduce figure 4.