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Genetics and evolution of ultraviolet vision in vertebrates
Author(s) -
Yokoyama Shozo,
Shi Yongsheng
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(00)02269-9
Subject(s) - pigment , foraging , biology , lineage (genetic) , evolutionary biology , mating , zoology , ultraviolet radiation , biological evolution , ultraviolet , predation , ultraviolet light , color vision , genetics , ecology , gene , chemistry , photochemistry , optics , physics , organic chemistry , radiochemistry
Various vertebrates use ultraviolet (UV) vision for such basic behaviors as mating, foraging, and predation. We have successfully interchanged the color‐sensitivities of the mouse UV pigment and the human blue pigment by introducing forward and reverse mutations at five sites. This unveils for the first time the general mechanism of UV vision. Most contemporary UV pigments in vertebrates have maintained their ancestral functions by accumulating no more than one of the five specific amino acid changes. The avian lineage is an exception, where the ancestral pigment lost UV‐sensitivity but some descendants regained it by one amino acid replacement at an entirely different site.