Evolution of an adaptive behavior and its sensory receptors promotes eye regression in blind cavefish.

ABSTRACT:

Background

How and why animals lose eyesight during adaptation to the dark and food-limited cave environment has puzzled biologists since the time of Darwin. More recently, several different adaptive hypotheses have been proposed to explain eye degeneration based on studies in the teleost Astyanax mexicanus, which consists of blind cave-dwelling (cavefish) and sighted surface-dwelling (surface fish) forms. One of these hypotheses is that eye regression is the result of indirect selection for constructive characters that are negatively linked to eye development through the pleiotropic effects of Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling. However, subsequent genetic analyses suggested that other mechanisms also contribute to eye regression in Astyanax cavefish. Here, we introduce a new approach

SUBMITTER: Yoshizawa M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3565949 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature