ArticleNature2016
Molecular logic behind the three-way stochastic choices that expand butterfly colour vision.
Article in Nature, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers.
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Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 136 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sensory receptor expansion and neural accommodation in butterfly color vision.Science advances · 2026Article
- Evolution of compound eye cell types shapes visual behaviors acrossbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
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- Neuroethology on the move with butterflies and moths.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- The visual system of a nocturnal long-distance migrant, the Australian Bogong moth.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Sex-limited diversification of the eye in Heliconius cydno butterflies.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Graded opsin co-expression along the butterfly retina fine tunes the spectral sensitivity of a colour-opponent cell across the visual field.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Cellular innovations and diversity in the lepidopteran compound eye.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Review
- A comprehensive characterization of opsin distribution across the visual system in the three castes of the honeybee.iScience · 2025Article
- Long-term live imaging, cell identification and cell tracking in regenerating crustacean legs.eLife · 2025Article
- Highly Efficient Generation of Germline Mutations Using CRISPR/Cas9 in the Speckled Wood ButterflyEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Remarkable red colour vision in two Mediterranean beetle pollinators.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Single-nucleus transcriptomics of wing sexual dimorphism and scale cell specialization in sulphur butterflies.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Lepidopteran scale cells derive from sensory organ precursors through a canonical lineage.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
- Genetic, developmental, and neural changes underlying the evolution of butterfly mate preference.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Deep conservation complemented by novelty and innovation in the insect eye ground plan.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- TheProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Cas9-Mediated Gene Editing Using Receptor-Mediated Ovary Transduction of Cargo (ReMOT) Control inInsects · 2023Article
- Molecular Evolution of Malacostracan Short Wavelength Sensitive Opsins.Journal of molecular evolution · 2023Article
- Opsin Gene Duplication in Lepidoptera: Retrotransposition, Sex Linkage, and Gene Expression.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Butterflies rely extensively on colour vision to adapt to the natural world. Most species express a broad range of colour-sensitive Rhodopsin proteins in three types of ommatidia (unit eyes), which are distributed stochastically across the retina. The retinas of Drosophila melanogaster use just two main types, in which fate is controlled by the binary stochastic decision to express the transcription factor Spineless in R7 photoreceptors. We investigated how butterflies instead generate three stochastically distributed ommatidial types, resulting in a more diverse retinal mosaic that provides the basis for additional colour comparisons and an expanded range of colour vision. We show that the Japanese yellow swallowtail (Papilio xuthus, Papilionidae) and the painted lady (Vanessa cardui, Nymphalidae) butterflies have a second R7-like photoreceptor in each ommatidium. Independent stochastic expression of Spineless in each R7-like cell results in expression of a blue-sensitive (Spineless(ON)) or an ultraviolet (UV)-sensitive (Spineless(OFF)) Rhodopsin. In P. xuthus these choices of blue/blue, blue/UV or UV/UV sensitivity in the two R7 cells are coordinated with expression of additional Rhodopsin proteins in the remaining photoreceptors, and together define the three types of ommatidia. Knocking out spineless using CRISPR/Cas9 (refs 5, 6) leads to the loss of the blue-sensitive fate in R7-like cells and transforms retinas into homogeneous fields of UV/UV-type ommatidia, with corresponding changes in other coordinated features of ommatidial type. Hence, the three possible outcomes of Spineless expression define the three ommatidial types in butterflies. This developmental strategy allowed the deployment of an additional red-sensitive Rhodopsin in P. xuthus, allowing for the evolution of expanded colour vision with a greater variety of receptors. This surprisingly simple mechanism that makes use of two binary stochastic decisions coupled with local coordination may prove to be a general means of generating an increased diversity of developmental outcomes.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.