Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
J Comp Physiol B. 2012 Dec;182(8):1095-116. doi: 10.1007/s00360-012-0677-4. Epub 2012 Jun 6.
Carotenoid pigments were extracted from 29 feather patches from 25 species of cotingas (Cotingidae) representing all lineages of the family with carotenoid plumage coloration. Using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), mass spectrometry, chemical analysis, and ¹H-NMR, 16 different carotenoid molecules were documented in the plumages of the cotinga family. These included common dietary xanthophylls (lutein and zeaxanthin), canary xanthophylls A and B, four well known and broadly distributed avian ketocarotenoids (canthaxanthin, astaxanthin, α-doradexanthin, and adonixanthin), rhodoxanthin, and seven 4-methoxy-ketocarotenoids. Methoxy-ketocarotenoids were found in 12 species within seven cotinga genera, including a new, previously undescribed molecule isolated from the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock Rupicola peruviana, 3'-hydroxy-3-methoxy-β,β-carotene-4-one, which we name rupicolin. The diversity of cotinga plumage carotenoid pigments is hypothesized to be derived via four metabolic pathways from lutein, zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, and β-carotene. All metabolic transformations within the four pathways can be described by six or seven different enzymatic reactions. Three of these reactions are shared among three precursor pathways and are responsible for eight different metabolically derived carotenoid molecules. The function of cotinga plumage carotenoid diversity was analyzed with reflectance spectrophotometry of plumage patches and a tetrahedral model of avian color visual perception. The evolutionary history of the origin of this diversity is analyzed phylogenetically. The color space analyses document that the evolutionarily derived metabolic modifications of dietary xanthophylls have resulted in the creation of distinctive orange-red and purple visual colors.
从代表科廷加家族所有谱系的 25 种科廷鸟的 29 个羽毛斑块中提取了类胡萝卜素色素。使用高效液相色谱 (HPLC)、质谱、化学分析和 ¹H-NMR，在科廷加家族的羽毛中记录了 16 种不同的类胡萝卜素分子。这些包括常见的饮食叶黄素（叶黄素和玉米黄质）、金丝雀叶黄素 A 和 B、四种著名且广泛分布的鸟类酮类胡萝卜素（角黄素、虾青素、α-多拉德黄质和adonixanthin）、隐黄质和七种 4-甲氧基酮类胡萝卜素。在七个科廷鸟属的 12 个物种中发现了甲氧基酮类胡萝卜素，包括一种以前未描述的新分子，从安第斯山的山雀科鸟 Rupicola peruviana 中分离出来，3'-羟基-3-甲氧基-β,β-胡萝卜素-4-酮，我们将其命名为 rupicolin。科廷鸟羽毛类胡萝卜素色素的多样性被假设是通过四条代谢途径从叶黄素、玉米黄质、β-隐黄质和β-胡萝卜素衍生而来的。四条途径中的所有代谢转化都可以用六种或七种不同的酶反应来描述。这三种反应在三个前体途径中是共有的，负责八种不同的代谢衍生类胡萝卜素分子。通过对羽毛斑块的反射分光光度法和鸟类颜色视觉感知的四面体模型分析了科廷鸟羽毛类胡萝卜素多样性的功能。分析了这种多样性起源的进化历史。颜色空间分析记录表明，饮食叶黄素的进化衍生代谢修饰导致了独特的橙红色和紫色视觉颜色的产生。
