Parallel Spectral Tuning of a Cone Visual Pigment Provides Evidence for Ancient Deep-Sea Adaptations in Cetaceans.

ABSTRACT: Dichromatic color vision is mediated by two cone visual pigments in many eutherian mammals. After reentry into the sea, early cetaceans lost their violet-sensitive visual pigment (short wavelength-sensitive 1) independently in the baleen and toothed whale ancestors and thus obtained only monochromatic cone vision. Subsequently, losses of the middle/long wavelength-sensitive (M/LWS) pigment have also been reported in multiple whale lineages, leading to rhodopsin (RH1)-mediated rod monochromatic vision. To further elucidate the phenotypic evolution of whale visual pigments, we assessed the spectral tuning of both M/LWS and RH1 from representative cetacean taxa. Interestingly, although the coding sequences for M/LWS are intact in both the pygmy right whale and the Baird's beaked whale, no spe

SUBMITTER: Chi H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11503649 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature