33
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Genomic and gene regulatory signatures of cryptozoic adaptation: Loss of blue sensitive photoreceptors through expansion of long wavelength-opsin expression in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Background

          Recent genome sequence analysis in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum indicated that this highly crepuscular animal encodes only two single opsin paralogs: a UV-opsin and a long wavelength (LW)-opsin; however, these animals do not encode a blue (B)-opsin as most other insects. Here, we studied the spatial regulation of the Tribolium single LW- and UV-opsin gene paralogs in comparison to that of the five opsin paralogs in the retina of Drosophila melanogaster.

          Results

          In situ hybridization analysis reveals that the Tribolium retina, in contrast with other insect retinas, constitutes a homogenous field of ommatidia that have seven LW-opsin expressing photoreceptors and one UV-/LW-opsin co-expressing photoreceptor per eye unit. This pattern is consistent with the loss of photoreceptors sensitive to blue wavelengths. It also identifies Tribolium as the first example of a species in insects that co-expresses two different opsins across the entire retina in violation of the widely observed "one receptor rule" of sensory cells.

          Conclusion

          Broader studies of opsin evolution in darkling beetles and other coleopteran groups have the potential to pinpoint the permissive and adaptive forces that played a role in the evolution of vision in Tribolium castaneum.

          Related collections

          Most cited references51

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          Periodate-lysine-paraformaldehyde fixative. A new fixation for immunoelectron microscopy.

            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Photoreceptor spectral sensitivities in terrestrial animals: adaptations for luminance and colour vision.

            This review outlines how eyes of terrestrial vertebrates and insects meet the competing requirements of coding both spatial and spectral information. There is no unique solution to this problem. Thus, mammals and honeybees use their long-wavelength receptors for both achromatic (luminance) and colour vision, whereas flies and birds probably use separate sets of photoreceptors for the two purposes. In particular, we look at spectral tuning and diversification among 'long-wavelength' receptors (sensitivity maxima at greater than 500 nm), which play a primary role in luminance vision. Data on spectral sensitivities and phylogeny of visual photopigments can be incorporated into theoretical models to suggest how eyes are adapted to coding natural stimuli. Models indicate, for example, that animal colour vision--involving five or fewer broadly tuned receptors--is well matched to most natural spectra. We can also predict that the particular objects of interest and signal-to-noise ratios will affect the optimal eye design. Nonetheless, it remains difficult to account for the adaptive significance of features such as co-expression of photopigments in single receptors, variation in spectral sensitivities of mammalian L-cone pigments and the diversification of long-wavelength receptors that has occurred in several terrestrial lineages.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Visual transduction in Drosophila.

              The brain's capacity to analyse and interpret information is limited ultimately by the input it receives. This sets a premium on information capacity of sensory receptors, which can be maximized by optimizing sensitivity, speed and reliability of response. Nowhere is selection pressure for information capacity stronger than in the visual system, where speed and sensitivity can mean the difference between life and death. Phototransduction in flies represents the fastest G-protein-signalling cascade known. Analysis in Drosophila has revealed many of the underlying molecular strategies, leading to the discovery and characterization of signalling molecules of widespread importance.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                Front Zool
                Frontiers in Zoology
                BioMed Central
                1742-9994
                2007
                21 December 2007
                : 4
                : 24
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Biological Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202 USA
                [2 ]Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, 3600 Cancer Research Building, St. Louis, MO 63110 USA
                [3 ]Division of Developmental Biology and Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati OH 45229 USA
                [4 ]Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI 48201 USA
                Article
                1742-9994-4-24
                10.1186/1742-9994-4-24
                2254409
                18154648
                12992044-572e-4a29-883a-82897224aa8c
                Copyright © 2007 Jackowska et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 19 September 2007
                : 21 December 2007
                Categories
                Research

                Animal science & Zoology
                Animal science & Zoology

                Comments

                Comment on this article

                scite_
                0
                0
                0
                0
                Smart Citations
                0
                0
                0
                0
                Citing PublicationsSupportingMentioningContrasting
                View Citations

                See how this article has been cited at scite.ai

                scite shows how a scientific paper has been cited by providing the context of the citation, a classification describing whether it supports, mentions, or contrasts the cited claim, and a label indicating in which section the citation was made.

                Similar content575

                Cited by20

                Most referenced authors892