Visual sensitivities tuned by heterochronic shifts in opsin gene expression.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cichlid fishes have radiated into hundreds of species in the Great Lakes of Africa. Brightly colored males display on leks and vie to be chosen by females as mates. Strong discrimination by females causes differential male mating success, rapid evolution of male color patterns and, possibly, speciation. In addition to differences in color pattern, Lake Malawi cichlids also show some of the largest known shifts in visual sensitivity among closely related species. These shifts result from modulated expression of seven cone opsin genes. However, the mechanisms for this modulated expression are unknown.

Results

In this work, we ask whether these differences might result from changes in developmental patterning of cone opsin genes. To test this, we compared the develop

SUBMITTER: Carleton KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2430543 | biostudies-literature | 2008 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature