Visual pigment evolution in Characiformes: The dynamic interplay of teleost whole-genome duplication, surviving opsins and spectral tuning.

ABSTRACT: Vision represents an excellent model for studying adaptation, given the genotype-to-phenotype map that has been characterized in a number of taxa. Fish possess a diverse range of visual sensitivities and adaptations to underwater light, making them an excellent group to study visual system evolution. In particular, some speciose but understudied lineages can provide a unique opportunity to better understand aspects of visual system evolution such as opsin gene duplication and neofunctionalization. In this study, we showcase the visual system evolution of neotropical Characiformes and the spectral tuning mechanisms they exhibit to modulate their visual sensitivities. Such mechanisms include gene duplications and losses, gene conversion, opsin amino acid sequence and expression variation, an

SUBMITTER: Escobar-Camacho D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7451407 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature