Ancient whale rhodopsin reconstructs dim-light vision over a major evolutionary transition: Implications for ancestral diving behavior.

ABSTRACT: Cetaceans are fully aquatic mammals that descended from terrestrial ancestors, an iconic evolutionary transition characterized by adaptations for underwater foraging via breath-hold diving. Although the evolutionary history of this specialized behavior is challenging to reconstruct, coevolving sensory systems may offer valuable clues. The dim-light visual pigment, rhodopsin, which initiates phototransduction in the rod photoreceptors of the eye, has provided insight into the visual ecology of depth in several aquatic vertebrate lineages. Here, we use ancestral sequence reconstruction and protein resurrection experiments to quantify light-activation metrics in rhodopsin pigments from ancestors bracketing the cetacean terrestrial-to-aquatic transition. By comparing multiple reconstruction me

SUBMITTER: Dungan SZ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9271160 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature