Novales Flamarique Iñigo
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6 Department of Biology, University of Victoria, PO Box 1700, Station CSC, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8W 2Y2
Proc Biol Sci. 2016 Mar 16;283(1826):20160058. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0058.
Ultraviolet (UV) cones are photoreceptors that sense light in the range 300-450 nm and are found in the retinas of non-mammalian vertebrates and small mammals. Despite their widespread presence across taxa, the functions that these cones exert in the lives of animals remain largely unknown. In this study, I used the zebrafish lor (lots of rods) mutant, characterized by a diminished UV cone population compared to that of wild-type zebrafish, to test whether its foraging performance differed from that of the wild-type (control). The mean location distance and angle (variables that are reliable indicators of foraging performance) at which control fish detected zooplankton prey were, on average, 24 and 90% greater than corresponding measures for lor fish. Such inferior foraging performance of the mutant could be explained by reduced contrast perception of the prey, resulting from the diminished population of UV cones and associated sensitivity. Thus, UV cones enhance the foraging performance of zebrafish, a crucial ecological function that may explain why small zooplanktivorous fishes retain UV cones throughout their lives.
紫外线（UV）视锥细胞是一种光感受器，能感知300 - 450纳米范围内的光，存在于非哺乳动物脊椎动物和小型哺乳动物的视网膜中。尽管它们在不同分类群中广泛存在，但这些视锥细胞在动物生活中所发挥的功能仍 largely未知。在本研究中，我使用了斑马鱼lor（大量视杆细胞）突变体，其特征是与野生型斑马鱼相比，UV视锥细胞数量减少，以此来测试其觅食表现是否与野生型（对照）不同。对照鱼检测到浮游动物猎物时的平均定位距离和角度（这些变量是觅食表现的可靠指标），平均而言，比lor突变体鱼的相应测量值分别大24%和90%。突变体这种较差的觅食表现可以通过UV视锥细胞数量减少及相关敏感性导致的猎物对比度感知降低来解释。因此，UV视锥细胞增强了斑马鱼的觅食表现，这是一种关键的生态功能，可能解释了为什么小型浮游动物食性鱼类终生保留UV视锥细胞。
