Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
Curr Biol. 2014 Jul 21;24(14):1636-1642. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.071. Epub 2014 Jul 3.
Stomatopod crustaceans, or mantis shrimp, are renowned for their complex visual systems. Their array of 16 types of photoreceptors provides complex color reception, as well as linear and circular polarization sensitivity [1-6]. The least-understood components of their retina are the UV receptors, of which there are up to six distinct, narrowly tuned spectral types [4]. Here we show that in the stomatopod species Neogonodactylus oerstedii, this set of receptors is based on only two visual pigments. Surprisingly, five of the six UV receptor types contain the same visual pigment. The various UV receptors are spectrally tuned by a novel set of four short- and long-pass UV-specific optical filters in the overlying crystalline cones. These filters are composed of various mycosporine-like amino acid (MAA) pigments. Commonly referred to as "nature's sunscreens," MAAs are usually employed for UV photoprotection [7, 8], but mantis shrimp uniquely incorporate them into powerful spectral tuning filters, extending and diversifying their preeminently elaborate photoreceptive arsenal.
十足目甲壳动物，又称螳螂虾，以其复杂的视觉系统而闻名。它们拥有 16 种类型的感光器，可以提供复杂的色彩感知，以及线性和圆偏振敏感性[1-6]。它们视网膜中最不为人知的部分是紫外线感受器，其中多达六种具有独特的窄带调谐光谱类型[4]。在这里，我们表明在十足目物种 Neogonodactylus oerstedii 中，这组感受器仅基于两种视觉色素。令人惊讶的是，六种 UV 感受器中的五种包含相同的视觉色素。各种 UV 感受器通过覆盖在晶状锥体上的一组新的四个短通和长通 UV 专用光学滤光片进行光谱调谐。这些滤光片由各种真菌氨酸类似物（MAA）色素组成。通常被称为“大自然的防晒霜”，MAAs 通常用于紫外线光保护[7,8]，但螳螂虾独特地将它们纳入强大的光谱调谐滤光片中，扩展并多样化了它们卓越的感光器装备。
