Visual Ecology

Cronin, Thomas W.; Johnsen, Sönke; Marshall, N. Justin; Warrant, Eric J.

doi:10.1515/9781400853021

Cited by 130 publications

(180 citation statements)

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“…gambiae and Cx. quinquefasciatus are active in shallow aquatic environments that are typically associated with longer wavelengths due to the defraction of incident light [ 74 ]. Supporting this theory is the identification of extreme expansions in the LW opsins in the aquatic invertebrate, Daphnia pulex (25 LW opsins), stomatopods (six LW opsins) [ 22 , 23 ] and dragonflies (from 8 to 21 LW opsins).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retention of duplicated long-wavelength opsins in mosquito lineages by positive selection and differential expression

2017

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BackgroundOpsins are light sensitive receptors associated with visual processes. Insects typically possess opsins that are stimulated by ultraviolet, short and long wavelength (LW) radiation. Six putative LW-sensitive opsins predicted in the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti and malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, and eight in the southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, suggest gene expansion in the Family Culicidae (mosquitoes) relative to other insects. Here we report the first detailed molecular and evolutionary analyses of LW opsins in three mosquito vectors, with a goal to understanding the molecular basis of opsin-mediated visual processes that could be exploited for mosquito control.ResultsTime of divergence estimates suggest that the mosquito LW opsins originated from 18 or 19 duplication events between 166.9/197.5 to 1.07/0.94 million years ago (MY) and that these likely occurred following the predicted divergence of the lineages Anophelinae and Culicinae 145–226 MY. Fitmodel analyses identified nine amino acid residues in the LW opsins that may be under positive selection. Of these, eight amino acids occur in the N and C termini and are shared among all three species, and one residue in TMIII was unique to culicine species. Alignment of 5′ non-coding regions revealed potential Conserved Non-coding Sequences (CNS) and transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) in seven pairs of LW opsin paralogs.ConclusionsOur analyses suggest opsin gene duplication and residues possibly associated with spectral tuning of LW-sensitive photoreceptors. We explore two mechanisms - positive selection and differential expression mediated by regulatory units in CNS – that may have contributed to the retention of LW opsin genes in Culicinae and Anophelinae. We discuss the evolution of mosquito LW opsins in the context of major Earth events and possible adaptation of mosquitoes to LW-dominated photo environments, and implications for mosquito control strategies based on disrupting vision-mediated behaviors.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-017-0910-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retention of duplicated long-wavelength opsins in mosquito lineages by positive selection and differential expression

2017

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“…Light is conceptualized as packets of energy (photons) with varying wavelengths that can be perceived by organisms (Cronin et al, 2014). Ranges of wavelengths represent discrete colors and can elicit different responses from organisms with light-sensitive organs, most notably the eyes.…”

Section: Visionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review on Fish Sensory Systems and Amazon Water Types With Implications to Biodiversity

et al. 2021

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The Amazon has the highest richness of freshwater organisms in the world, which has led to a multitude of hypotheses on the mechanisms that generated this biodiversity. However, most of these hypotheses focus on the spatial distance of populations, a framework that fails to provide an explicit mechanism of speciation. Ecological conditions in Amazon freshwaters can be strikingly distinct, as it has been recognized since Alfred Russel Wallace’s categorization into black, white, and blue (= clear) waters. Water types reflect differences in turbidity, dissolved organic matter, electrical conductivity, pH, amount of nutrients and lighting environment, characteristics that directly affect the sensory abilities of aquatic organisms. Since natural selection drives evolution of sensory systems to function optimally according to environmental conditions, the sensory systems of Amazon freshwater organisms are expected to vary according to their environment. When differences in sensory systems affect chances of interbreeding between populations, local adaptations may result in speciation. Here, we briefly present the limnologic characteristics of Amazonian water types and how they are expected to influence photo-, chemical-, mechano-, and electro-reception of aquatic organisms, focusing on fish. We put forward that the effect of different water types on the adaptation of sensory systems is an important mechanism that contributed to the evolution of fish diversity. We point toward underexplored research perspectives on how divergent selection may act on sensory systems and thus contribute to the origin and maintenance of the biodiversity of Amazon aquatic environments.

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“…Arthropods comprise more than 80% of animals living on the planet (Roskov et al, 2000) but little is known about the diversity of the visual systems in this phylum (Rosenthal et al 2017). Many arthropods make extensive use of visual information to perform essential behaviours, such as locating suitable mates, finding food or avoiding predators (Cronin et al, 2014). To better understand how these animals interact with their environment, it is therefore important to carry out anatomical and functional investigations of the myriad of arthropod eyes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

InSegtCone: Interactive Segmentation of crystalline Cones in compound eyes

Tichit

Zhou

Kjer

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Understanding the diversity of eyes is crucial to unravel how different animals use vision to interact with their respective environments. To date, comparative studies of eye anatomy are scarce because they often involve time-consuming or inefficient methods. X-ray micro-tomography is a promising high-throughput imaging technique that enables to reconstruct the 3D anatomy of eyes, but powerful tools are needed to perform fast conversions of anatomical reconstructions into functional eye models. We developed a computing method named InSegtCone to automatically segment the crystalline cones in the apposition compound eyes of arthropods. Here, we describe the full auto-segmentation process, showcase its application to three different insect compound eyes and evaluate its performance. The auto-segmentation could successfully label the full individual shapes of 60%-80% of the crystalline cones, and is about as accurate and 250 times faster than manual labelling of the individual cones. We believe that InSegtCone can be an important tool for peer scientists to enable extensive comparisons of the diversity of eyes and vision in arthropods.

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Visual Ecology

Cited by 130 publications

References 0 publications

Retention of duplicated long-wavelength opsins in mosquito lineages by positive selection and differential expression

Retention of duplicated long-wavelength opsins in mosquito lineages by positive selection and differential expression

A Review on Fish Sensory Systems and Amazon Water Types With Implications to Biodiversity

InSegtCone: Interactive Segmentation of crystalline Cones in compound eyes

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