scholarly journals SWS2 visual pigment evolution as a test of historically contingent patterns of plumage color evolution in warblers

Evolution ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha I. Bloch ◽  
James M. Morrow ◽  
Belinda S. W. Chang ◽  
Trevor D. Price
Keyword(s):  
Visual Pigment ◽  
Plumage Color ◽  
Color Evolution ◽  
Visual Pigment Evolution

scholarly journals SWS2 visual pigment evolution as a test of historically contingent patterns of plumage color evolution in Warblers

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Bloch ◽  
James M Morrow ◽  
Belinda SW Chang ◽  
Trevor D Price
Keyword(s):  
Visual Pigment ◽  
Short Wavelength ◽  
New World ◽  
Historical Contingency ◽  
Spectral Tuning ◽  
Plumage Color ◽  
Old World ◽  
Color Evolution ◽  
Color Differences ◽  
Visual Pigment Evolution

Distantly related clades that occupy similar environments may differ due to the lasting imprint of their ancestors – historical contingency. The New World warblers (Parulidae) and Old World warblers (Phylloscopidae) are ecologically similar clades that differ strikingly in plumage coloration. We studied genetic and functional evolution of the short-wavelength sensitive visual pigments (SWS2 and SWS1) to ask if altered color perception could contribute to the plumage color differences between clades. We show SWS2 is short-wavelength shifted in birds that occupy open environments, such as finches, compared to those in closed environments, including warblers. Sequencing of opsin genes and phylogenetic reconstructions indicate New World warblers were derived from a finch-like form that colonized from the Old World 15-20Ma. During this process the SWS2 gene accumulated 6 substitutions in branches leading to New World warblers, inviting the hypothesis that passage through a finch-like ancestor resulted in SWS2 evolution. In fact, we show spectral tuning remained similar across warblers as well as the finch ancestor. Results reject the hypothesis of historical contingency based on opsin spectral tuning, but point to evolution of other aspects of visual pigment function. Using the approach outlined here, historical contingency becomes a generally testable theory in systems where genotype and phenotype can be connected.

scholarly journals Out of the blue: adaptive visual pigment evolution accompanies Amazon invasion

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 20150349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Van Nynatten ◽  
Devin Bloom ◽  
Belinda S. W. Chang ◽  
Nathan R. Lovejoy
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Evolution ◽  
Positive Selection ◽  
Visual Pigment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
South American ◽  
Sequence Analyses ◽  
Freshwater Habitats ◽  
Varying Environments ◽  
Visual Pigment Evolution

Incursions of marine water into South America during the Miocene prompted colonization of freshwater habitats by ancestrally marine species and present a unique opportunity to study the molecular evolution of adaptations to varying environments. Freshwater and marine environments are distinct in both spectra and average intensities of available light. Here, we investigate the molecular evolution of rhodopsin, the photosensitive pigment in the eye that activates in response to light, in a clade of South American freshwater anchovies derived from a marine ancestral lineage. Using likelihood-based comparative sequence analyses, we found evidence for positive selection in the rhodopsin of freshwater anchovy lineages at sites known to be important for aspects of rhodopsin function such as spectral tuning. No evidence was found for positive selection in marine lineages, nor in three other genes not involved in vision. Our results suggest that an increased rate of rhodopsin evolution was driven by diversification into freshwater habitats, thereby constituting a rare example of molecular evolution mirroring large-scale palaeogeographic events.

scholarly journals Comparative visual ecology of cephalopods from different habitats

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1838) ◽  
pp. 20161346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-Sung Chung ◽  
N. Justin Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Visual Pigment ◽  
Visual Ecology ◽  
Functional Adaptation ◽  
Light Conditions ◽  
Spectral Tuning ◽  
Spectral Shifts ◽  
Spectral Absorbance ◽  
Aquatic Predators ◽  
Modes Of Life ◽  
Visual Pigment Evolution

Previous investigations of vision and visual pigment evolution in aquatic predators have focused on fish and crustaceans, generally ignoring the cephalopods. Since the first cephalopod opsin was sequenced in late 1980s, we now have data on over 50 cephalopod opsins, prompting this functional and phylogenetic examination. Much of this data does not specifically examine the visual pigment spectral absorbance position ( λ max ) relative to environment or lifestyle, and cephalopod opsin functional adaptation and visual ecology remain largely unknown. Here we introduce a new protocol for photoreceptor microspectrophotometry (MSP) that overcomes the difficulty of bleaching the bistable visual pigment and that reveals eight coastal coleoid cephalopods to be monochromatic with λ max varying from 484 to 505 nm. A combination of current MSP results, the λ max values previously characterized using cephalopod retinal extracts (467–500 nm) and the corresponding opsin phylogenetic tree were used for systematic comparisons with an end goal of examining the adaptations of coleoid visual pigments to different light environments. Spectral tuning shifts are described in response to different modes of life and light conditions. A new spectral tuning model suggests that nine amino acid substitution sites may determine the direction and the magnitude of spectral shifts.

Using Historical Biogeography Models to Study Color Pattern Evolution

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 755-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad M Eliason ◽  
Michael J Andersen ◽  
Shannon J Hackett
Keyword(s):  
Color Pattern ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Historical Biogeography ◽  
The Body ◽  
Plumage Color ◽  
Structural Colors ◽  
Color Evolution ◽  
Complex Phenotypes ◽  
Distinct Color ◽  
Parasite Evolution

Abstract Color is among the most striking features of organisms, varying not only in spectral properties like hue and brightness, but also in where and how it is produced on the body. Different combinations of colors on a bird’s body are important in both environmental and social contexts. Previous comparative studies have treated plumage patches individually or derived plumage complexity scores from color measurements across a bird’s body. However, these approaches do not consider the multivariate nature of plumages (allowing for plumage to evolve as a whole) or account for interpatch distances. Here, we leverage a rich toolkit used in historical biogeography to assess color pattern evolution in a cosmopolitan radiation of birds, kingfishers (Aves: Alcedinidae). We demonstrate the utility of this approach and test hypotheses about the tempo and mode of color evolution in kingfishers. Our results highlight the importance of considering interpatch distances in understanding macroevolutionary trends in color diversity and demonstrate how historical biogeography models are a useful way to model plumage color pattern evolution. Furthermore, they show that distinct color mechanisms (pigments or structural colors) spread across the body in different ways and at different rates. Specifically, net rates are higher for structural colors than pigment-based colors. Together, our study suggests a role for both development and selection in driving extraordinary color pattern diversity in kingfishers. We anticipate this approach will be useful for modeling other complex phenotypes besides color, such as parasite evolution across the body.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 2234-2253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Escobar‐Camacho ◽  
Karen L. Carleton ◽  
Devika W. Narain ◽  
Michele E. R. Pierotti
Keyword(s):  
Visual Pigment ◽  
Whole Genome Duplication ◽  
Genome Duplication ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Spectral Tuning ◽  
Visual Pigment Evolution ◽  
Dynamic Interplay

scholarly journals Evolution of crab eye structures and the utility of ommatidia morphology in resolving phylogeny

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Luque ◽  
W. Ted Allison ◽  
Heather D. Bracken-Grissom ◽  
Kelsey M. Jenkins ◽  
A. Richard Palmer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Pigment ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Compound Eye ◽  
Compound Eyes ◽  
Decapod Crustaceans ◽  
Phylogenetic Studies ◽  
Visual Systems ◽  
Ideal Study ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Visual Pigment Evolution

ABSTRACTImage-forming compound eyes are such a valuable adaptation that similar visual systems have evolved independently across crustaceans. But if different compound eye types have evolved independently multiple times, how useful are eye structures and ommatidia morphology for resolving phylogenetic relationships? Crabs are ideal study organisms to explore these questions because they have a good fossil record extending back into the Jurassic, they possess a great variety of optical designs, and details of eye form can be compared between extant and fossil groups. True crabs, or Brachyura, have been traditionally divided into two groups based on the position of the sexual openings in males and females: the so-called ‘Podotremata’ (females bearing their sexual openings on the legs), and the Eubrachyura, or ‘higher’ true crabs (females bearing their sexual openings on the thorax). Although Eubrachyura appears to be monophyletic, the monophyly of podotreme crabs remains controversial and therefore requires exploration of new character systems. The earliest podotremous lineages share the plesiomorphic condition of ‘mirror’ reflecting superposition eyes with most shrimp, lobsters, and anomurans (false crabs and allies). The optical mechanisms of fossil and extant podotreme groups more closely related to Eubrachyura, however, are still poorly investigated. To better judge the phylogenetic utility of compound eye form, we investigated the distribution of eye types in fossil and extant podotreme crabs. Our findings suggest the plesiomorphic ‘mirror’ eyes—seen in most decapod crustaceans including the earliest true crabs—has been lost in several ‘higher’ podotremes and in eubrachyurans. We conclude that the secondary retention of larval apposition eyes has existed in eubrachyurans and some podotremes since at least the Early Cretaceous, and that the distribution of eye types among true crabs supports a paraphyletic podotreme grade, as suggested by recent molecular and morphological phylogenetic studies. We also review photoreceptor structure and visual pigment evolution, currently known in crabs exclusively from eubrachyuran representatives. These topics are critical for future expansion of research on podotremes to deeply investigate the homology of eye types across crabs.

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