Widespread and Convergent Evolution of Cone Monochromacy in Galeomorph Sharks.

ABSTRACT: Color vision is widespread in marine vertebrates but is notably lacking in whales, dolphins, seals, and apparently also sharks. All sharks studied to date possess only a single spectral class of cone and are thus potentially totally color blind. The reason why sharks lack color vision is unclear, but as the visual pigments of only a handful of this large and ecologically diverse taxon have been studied, more data are required to address this question. Here, we assembled the retinal transcriptomes of 9 species from 7 families and 3 orders within the superorder Galeomorphii to screen for visual opsin and phototransduction genes. We reveal that cone monochromacy is widespread in galeomorph sharks, but the type of cone opsin expressed varies, with lamniform and orectolobiform sharks expressing

SUBMITTER: Hart NS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11886822 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature