ArticleEvolution & development
Evolution of albinism in cave planthoppers by a convergent defect in the first step of melanin biosynthesis.
Article in Evolution & development. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Repeated evolution and the impact of evolutionary history on adaptation.BMC evolutionary biology · 2015Pooled it
- Convergent evolution of albinism in cave animals is driven by shared mechanisms and adaptive advantages.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Comparative Embryology and Transcriptomics of Asellus infernus, an Isopod Crustacean From Sulfidic Groundwater.Evolution & development · 2025Article
- Genomics of Experimental Adaptive Radiation in the Cryptic Coloration of Feather Lice.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Circadian system and aging: where both times interact.Frontiers in aging · 2025Review
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- Comparative Genomics Reveals a Single Nucleotide Deletion inFrontiers in fungal biology · 2022Article
- Comparative transcriptomics of albino and warningly-coloured caterpillars.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Comparative transcriptomics reveals the molecular genetic basis of pigmentation loss inEcology and evolution · 2020Article
- Morphological and biological characterization of a light-colored mutant in the multicolored Asian lady beetle,Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
- Article
- Behavioural changes controlled by catecholaminergic systems explain recurrent loss of pigmentation in cavefish.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Pigmentation pattern and developmental constraints: flight muscle attachment sites delimit the thoracic trident of Drosophila melanogaster.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Melanization in response to wounding is ancestral in arthropods and conserved in albino cave species.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- A Transcriptomic Analysis of Cave, Surface, and Hybrid Isopod Crustaceans of the Species Asellus aquaticus.PloS one · 2015Article
- Article
- Convergence in feeding posture occurs through different genetic loci in independently evolved cave populations of Astyanax mexicanus.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2013Article
- Parallel reduction in expression, but no loss of functional constraint, in two opsin paralogs within cave populations of Gammarus minus (Crustacea: Amphipoda).BMC evolutionary biology · 2013Article
- Evolutionary history of relict Congeria (Bivalvia: Dreissenidae): unearthing the subterranean biodiversity of the Dinaric Karst.Frontiers in zoology · 2013Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Albinism, the reduction or loss of melanin pigment, is found in many diverse cave-dwelling animals. The mechanisms responsible for loss of melanin pigment are poorly understood. In this study we use a melanogenic substrate assay to determine the position where melanin synthesis is blocked in independently evolved cave planthoppers from Hawaii and Croatia. In this assay, substrates of enzymes responsible for melanin biosynthesis are added to fixed specimens in vitro and their ability to rescue black melanin pigmentation is determined. L-tyrosine, the first substrate in the pathway, did not produce melanin pigment, whereas L-DOPA, the second substrate, restored black pigment. Substrates in combination with enzyme inhibitors were used to test the possibility of additional downstream defects in the pathway. The results showed that downstream reactions leading from L-DOPA and dopamine to DOPA-melanin and dopamine-melanin, the two types of insect melanin, are functional. It is concluded that albinism is caused by a defect in the first step of the melanin synthesis pathway in cave-adapted planthoppers from widely separated parts of the world. However, Western blots indicated that tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the only enzyme shown to operate at the first step in insects, is present in Hawaiian cave planthoppers. Thus, an unknown factor(s) operating at this step may be important in the evolution of planthopper albinism. In the cavefish Astyanax mexicanus, a genetic defect has also been described at the first step of melanin synthesis suggesting convergent evolution of albinism in both cave-adapted insects and teleosts.
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