Molecular variation across populations of a widespread North American firefly, Photinus pyralis, reveals that coding changes do not underlie flash color variation or associated visual sensitivity.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Genes underlying signal production and reception are expected to evolve to maximize signal detection in specific environments. Fireflies vary in their light signal color both within and between species, and thus provide an excellent system in which to study signal production and reception in the context of signaling environments. Differences in signal color have been hypothesized to be due to variation in the sequence of luciferase, the enzyme that catalyzes the light reaction. Similarly, differences in visual sensitivity, which are expected to match signal color, have been hypothesized to be due to variation in the sequence of opsins, the protein component of visual pigments. Here we investigated (1) whether sequence variation in luciferase correlates with variation in

SUBMITTER: Lower SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6119266 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature