ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2015
Evolution of opsin expression in birds driven by sexual selection and habitat.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phenotypic plasticity in visual opsin gene expression: a meta-analysis in teleost fish.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Pooled it
- Viewing conditions predict evolutionary diversity in avian plumage colour.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- A complex genomic architecture underlies reproductive isolation in a North American oriole hybrid zone.Communications biology · 2023Article
- The evolutionary history and spectral tuning of vertebrate visual opsins.Developmental biology · 2023Review
- Neuroanatomical shifts mirror patterns of ecological divergence in three diverse clades of mimetic butterflies.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Variation and heritability of retinal cone ratios in a free-ranging population of rhesus macaques.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Evolutionary history limits species' ability to match colour sensitivity to available habitat light.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Age-Dependent Effects of Chronic Stress on Zebrafish Behavior and Regeneration.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- Sympatry drives colour and song evolution in wood-warblers (Parulidae).Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Short-wavelength-sensitive 2 (Sws2) visual photopigment models combined with atomistic molecular simulations to predict spectral peaks of absorbance.PLoS computational biology · 2020Article
- Testing sensory drive speciation in cichlid fish: Linking light conditions to opsin expression, opsin genotype and female mate preference.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2020Article
- Conserved visual sensitivities across divergent lizard lineages that differ in an ultraviolet sexual signal.Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
- Platyrrhine color signals: New horizons to pursue.Evolutionary anthropology · 2019Article
- Comparative analyses identify genomic features potentially involved in the evolution of birds-of-paradise.GigaScience · 2019Article
- Nocturnal flight-calling behaviour predicts vulnerability to artificial light in migratory birds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Opsin gene expression regulated by testosterone level in a sexually dimorphic lizard.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- The appearance of mimetic Heliconius butterflies to predators and conspecifics.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2018Article
- 25 Years of sensory drive: the evidence and its watery bias.Current zoology · 2018Article
- Opsin expression predicts male nuptial color in threespine stickleback.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
- Predicting peak spectral sensitivities of vertebrate cone visual pigments using atomistic molecular simulations.PLoS computational biology · 2018Article
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Abstract
Theories of sexual and natural selection predict coevolution of visual perception with conspecific colour and/or the light environment animals occupy. One way to test these theories is to focus on the visual system, which can be achieved by studying the opsin-based visual pigments that mediate vision. Birds vary greatly in colour, but opsin gene coding sequences and associated visual pigment spectral sensitivities are known to be rather invariant across birds. Here, I studied expression of the four cone opsin genes (Lws, Rh2, Sws2 and Sws1) in 16 species of New World warblers (Parulidae). I found levels of opsin expression vary both across species and between the sexes. Across species, female, but not male Sws2 expression is associated with an index of sexual selection, plumage dichromatism. This fits predictions of classic sexual selection models, in which the sensory system changes in females, presumably impacting female preference, and co-evolves with male plumage. Expression of the opsins at the extremes of the light spectrum, Lws and Uvs, correlates with the inferred light environment occupied by the different species. Unlike opsin spectral tuning, regulation of opsin gene expression allows for fast adaptive evolution of the visual system in response to natural and sexual selection, and in particular, sex-specific selection pressures.
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