ArticleMolecular ecology2017
The opsin genes of amazonian cichlids.
Article in Molecular ecology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 59 citations in OpenAlex.
- Opsin gene evolution in aquatic, amphibious and terrestrial blennies (Blenniidae).Biology open · 2026Article
- Seeing in the Deep: Evolution of the Opsin Gene Expression in Bermin Crater Lake Cichlids.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Rapid Divergence of Visual Systems and Signaling Traits to Contrasting Light Regimes During Early Speciation of African Crater Lake Cichlid Fish.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Dynamic Outlier Slicing Allows Broader Exploration of Adaptive Divergence: A Comparison of Individual Genome and Pool-Seq Data Linked to Humic Adaptation in Perch.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Expansion and Functional Diversification of Long-Wavelength-Sensitive Opsin in Anabantoid Fishes.Journal of molecular evolution · 2024Article
- Differential Regulation of Opsin Gene Expression in Response to Internal and External Stimuli.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Multiple Ecological Axes Drive Molecular Evolution of Cone Opsins in Beloniform Fishes.Journal of molecular evolution · 2024Article
- Knockout of lws1 in zebrafish (Danio rerio) reveals its role in regulating feeding and vision-guided behavior.Functional & integrative genomics · 2024Article
- Color vision evolution in egg-laying mammals: insights from visual photoreceptors and daily activities of Australian echidnas.Zoological letters · 2024Article
- Long-wavelength-sensitive (lws) opsin gene expression, foraging and visual communication in coral reef fishes.Molecular ecology · 2023Article
- Evolutionary analyses of visual opsin genes in frogs and toads: Diversity, duplication, and positive selection.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Correlated Expression of the Opsin Retrogene LWS-R and its Host Gene in Two Poeciliid Fishes.Zoological studies · 2022Article
- Molecular Evolution of Ultraviolet Visual Opsins and Spectral Tuning of Photoreceptors in Anemonefishes (Amphiprioninae).Genome biology and evolution · 2021Article
- Axes of visual adaptation in the ecologically diverse family Cichlidae.Seminars in cell & developmental biology · 2020Review
- Visual pigment evolution in Characiformes: The dynamic interplay of teleost whole-genome duplication, surviving opsins and spectral tuning.Molecular ecology · 2020Article
- Seeing the rainbow: mechanisms underlying spectral sensitivity in teleost fishes.The Journal of experimental biology · 2020Review
- Variable vision in variable environments: the visual system of an invasive cichlid (The Journal of experimental biology · 2019Article
- Evolutionary history of the medaka long-wavelength sensitive genes and effects of artificial regression by gene loss on behavioural photosensitivity.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Plasticity of opsin gene expression in the adult red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis) in response to turbid habitats.PloS one · 2019Article
- Convergent phenotypic evolution of the visual system via different molecular routes: How Neotropical cichlid fishes adapt to novel light environments.Evolution letters · 2018Article
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4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Vision is a critical sense for organismal survival with visual sensitivities strongly shaped by the environment. Some freshwater fishes with a Gondwanan origin are distributed in both South American rivers including the Amazon and African rivers and lakes. These different habitats likely required adaptations to murky and clear environments. In this study, we compare the molecular basis of Amazonian and African cichlid fishes' visual systems. We used next-generation sequencing of genomes and retinal transcriptomes to examine three Amazonian cichlid species. Genome assemblies revealed six cone opsin classes (SWS1, SWS2B, SWS2A, RH2B, RH2A and LWS) and rod opsin (RH1). However, the functionality of these genes varies across species with different pseudogenes found in different species. Our results support evidence of an RH2A gene duplication event that is shared across both cichlid groups, but which was probably followed by gene conversion. Transcriptome analyses show that Amazonian species mainly express three opsin classes (SWS2A, RH2A and LWS), which likely are a good match to the long-wavelength-oriented light environment of the Amazon basin. Furthermore, analysis of amino acid sequences suggests that the short-wavelength-sensitive genes (SWS2B, SWS2A) may be under selective pressures to shift their spectral properties to a longer-wavelength visual palette. Our results agree with the 'sensitivity hypothesis' where the light environment causes visual adaptation. Amazonian cichlid visual systems are likely adapting through gene expression, gene loss and possibly spectral tuning of opsin sequences. Such mechanisms may be shared across the Amazonian fish fauna.
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