ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2012
Molecular analysis of the amphioxus frontal eye unravels the evolutionary origin of the retina and pigment cells of the vertebrate eye.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers.
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54 citing papers in PubMed, 131 citations in OpenAlex.
- A 3D amphioxus brain atlas illuminates the blueprint of the ancestral chordate brain and highlights unique vertebrate innovations.Science advances · 2026Article
- Melanocytes and photosensory organs share a common ancestry that illuminates the origins of the neural crest.Communications biology · 2025Article
- An ancient apical patterning system sets the position of the forebrain in chordates.Science advances · 2025Article
- The cone visual cycle and its disorders: insights from zebrafish.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2025Review
- Gene networks and the evolution of olfactory organs, eyes, hair cells and motoneurons: a view encompassing lancelets, tunicates and vertebrates.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Review
- Ancestral role of Pax6 in chordate brain regionalization.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Article
- Evolution of the expression and regulation of the nuclear hormone receptor ERR gene family in the chordate lineage.Developmental biology · 2023Article
- Photobehaviours guided by simple photoreceptor systems.Animal cognition · 2023Review
- Article
- Bacterial origin of a key innovation in the evolution of the vertebrate eye.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Deep Diversity: Extensive Variation in the Components of Complex Visual Systems across Animals.Cells · 2022Review
- Vision and retina evolution: How to develop a retina.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2022Article
- An evolutionary perspective on chordate brain organization and function: insights from amphioxus, and the problem of sentience.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Hagfish to Illuminate the Developmental and Evolutionary Origins of the Vertebrate Retina.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- The Emergence of Rod-Cone Cellular Interaction.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Article
- Restricted Proliferation During Neurogenesis Contributes to Regionalisation of the Amphioxus Nervous System.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Ciliary photoreceptors in sea urchin larvae indicate pan-deuterostome cell type conservation.BMC biology · 2021Article
- The dorsoanterior brain of adult amphioxus shares similarities in expression profile and neuronal composition with the vertebrate telencephalon.BMC biology · 2021Article
- Slowly seeing the light: an integrative review on ecological light pollution as a potential threat for mollusks.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Review
- Optical Clearing and Light Sheet Microscopy Imaging of Amphioxus.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The origin of vertebrate eyes is still enigmatic. The "frontal eye" of amphioxus, our most primitive chordate relative, has long been recognized as a candidate precursor to the vertebrate eyes. However, the amphioxus frontal eye is composed of simple ciliated cells, unlike vertebrate rods and cones, which display more elaborate, surface-extended cilia. So far, the only evidence that the frontal eye indeed might be sensitive to light has been the presence of a ciliated putative sensory cell in the close vicinity of dark pigment cells. We set out to characterize the cell types of the amphioxus frontal eye molecularly, to test their possible relatedness to the cell types of vertebrate eyes. We show that the cells of the frontal eye specifically coexpress a combination of transcription factors and opsins typical of the vertebrate eye photoreceptors and an inhibitory Gi-type alpha subunit of the G protein, indicating an off-responding phototransductory cascade. Furthermore, the pigmented cells match the retinal pigmented epithelium in melanin content and regulatory signature. Finally, we reveal axonal projections of the frontal eye that resemble the basic photosensory-motor circuit of the vertebrate forebrain. These results support homology of the amphioxus frontal eye and the vertebrate eyes and yield insights into their evolutionary origin.
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