Close to complete conservation of the brachyceran opsin repertoire in the stalk‐eyed fly Teleopsis dalmanni

Abstract

Due to the unique morphology of their adult visual system, stalk‐eyed flies represent an important model of exaggerated trait evolution through sexual selection. Early physiological measurements indicated wavelength sensitivity peaks in the ultraviolet (360 nm), blue (450), blue‐green (490 nm), and red (>550 nm) ranges in the compound eye retina of the stalk‐eyed fly Teleopsis dalmanni, consistent with the trichromatic color and broad range motion detection vision system of brachyceran Diptera. A previous study of dipteran opsin gene diversification, however, detected only homologs of members of the long wavelength range sensitive opsin subfamilies Rh2 and Rh6 in T. dalmanni. Here, I report findings from analyzing the most recent T. dalmanni genome assembly, which revealed the conservation of most brachyceran opsin homologs except for the UV wavelength range‐sensitive homolog Rh4. These results and other examples highlight the caution that needs to be applied to gene loss conclusions.