Expression and Evolution of Short Wavelength Sensitive Opsins in Colugos: A Nocturnal Lineage That Informs Debate on Primate Origins.

ABSTRACT: A nocturnal activity pattern is central to almost all hypotheses on the adaptive origins of primates. This enduring view has been challenged in recent years on the basis of variation in the opsin genes of nocturnal primates. A correspondence between the opsin genes and activity patterns of species in Euarchonta-the superordinal group that includes the orders Primates, Dermoptera (colugos), and Scandentia (treeshrews)-could prove instructive, yet the basic biology of the dermopteran visual system is practically unknown. Here we show that the eye of the Sunda colugo (Galeopterus variegatus) lacks a tapetum lucidum and has an avascular retina, and we report on the expression and spectral sensitivity of cone photopigments. We found that Sunda colugos have intact short wavelength sensiti

SUBMITTER: Moritz GL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3832777 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature