Department of Biology, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Commun Biol. 2021 Feb 9;4(1):177. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-01688-z.
Opsins, combined with a chromophore, are the primary light-sensing molecules in animals and are crucial for color vision. Throughout animal evolution, duplications and losses of opsin proteins are common, but it is unclear what is driving these gains and losses. Light availability is implicated, and dim environments are often associated with low opsin diversity and loss. Correlations between high opsin diversity and bright environments, however, are tenuous. To test if increased light availability is associated with opsin diversification, we examined diel niche and identified opsins using transcriptomes and genomes of 175 butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). We found 14 independent opsin duplications associated with bright environments. Estimating their rates of evolution revealed that opsins from diurnal taxa evolve faster-at least 13 amino acids were identified with higher dN/dS rates, with a subset close enough to the chromophore to tune the opsin. These results demonstrate that high light availability increases opsin diversity and evolution rate in Lepidoptera.
视蛋白与发色团结合，是动物中主要的光感分子，对颜色视觉至关重要。在动物进化过程中，视蛋白蛋白的重复和缺失很常见，但导致这些获得和缺失的原因尚不清楚。光的可用性被认为与之相关，而昏暗的环境通常与低视蛋白多样性和缺失相关。然而，高视蛋白多样性与明亮环境之间的相关性并不确定。为了测试光照可用性的增加是否与视蛋白多样化有关，我们研究了昼夜生态位，并使用 175 种蝴蝶和飞蛾（鳞翅目）的转录组和基因组来鉴定视蛋白。我们发现了 14 个与明亮环境相关的独立视蛋白重复。估计它们的进化速度表明，来自昼行性类群的视蛋白进化得更快——至少有 13 个氨基酸具有更高的 dN/dS 比率，其中一部分与发色团足够接近，可以调节视蛋白。这些结果表明，高光照可用性增加了鳞翅目动物的视蛋白多样性和进化速度。
