ArticleBMC genomics2018
Adaptive genomic evolution of opsins reveals that early mammals flourished in nocturnal environments.
Article in BMC genomics, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hypoxic Preconditioning: An Underestimated Endogenous Protective Strategy?Biomolecules · 2026Review
- Rhodopsin molecular evolution from mouse to human phenylalanine 88 to leucine substitution enhances thermal stability and post-activation decay.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A key amino acid site associated with rhodopsin mammal evolution to diurnal vision.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- High melanosome diversity exhibits weak correlation with color and environmental variables in the early evolution of therian mammals.Science advances · 2025Article
- In-silico predicted mouse melanopsins with blue spectral shifts deliver efficient subcellular signaling.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2024Article
- Matreex: Compact and Interactive Visualization for Scalable Studies of Large Gene Families.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Diversity and Molecular Evolution of Nonvisual Opsin Genes across Environmental, Developmental, and Morphological Adaptations in Frogs.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Diversity and evolution of the vertebrate chemoreceptor gene repertoire.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Color vision evolution in egg-laying mammals: insights from visual photoreceptors and daily activities of Australian echidnas.Zoological letters · 2024Article
- Melanopsin-mediated optical entrainment regulates circadian rhythms in vertebrates.Communications biology · 2023Review
- Diversified Mammalian Visuasl Adaptations to Bright- or Dim-Light Environments.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- An Overview of the Penguin Visual System.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- The Birth of the Mammalian Sleep.Biology · 2022Review
- The Emergence of Rod-Cone Cellular Interaction.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Article
- Seeing the rainbow: mechanisms underlying spectral sensitivity in teleost fishes.The Journal of experimental biology · 2020Review
- Comparative Genomic Analysis of the Pheromone Receptor Class 1 Family (V1R) Reveals Extreme Complexity in Mouse Lemurs (Genus, Microcebus) and a Chromosomal Hotspot across Mammals.Genome biology and evolution · 2020Article
- Avian Binocularity and Adaptation to Nocturnal Environments: Genomic Insights from a Highly Derived Visual Phenotype.Genome biology and evolution · 2019Article
- A review of the studies on nonvisual lighting effects in the field of physiological anthropology.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBased on evolutionary patterns of the vertebrate eye, Walls (1942) hypothesized that early placental mammals evolved primarily in nocturnal habitats. However, not only Eutheria, but all mammals show photic characteristics (i.e. dichromatic vision, rod-dominated retina) suggestive of a scotopic eye design.
resultsHere, we used integrative comparative genomic and phylogenetic methodologies employing the photoreceptive opsin gene family in 154 mammals to test the likelihood of a nocturnal period in the emergence of all mammals. We showed that mammals possess genomic patterns concordant with a nocturnal ancestry. The loss of the RH2, VA, PARA, PARIE and OPN4x opsins in all mammals led us to advance a probable and most-parsimonious hypothesis of a global nocturnal bottleneck that explains the loss of these genes in the emerging lineage (> > 215.5 million years ago). In addition, ancestral character reconstruction analyses provided strong evidence that ancestral mammals possessed a nocturnal lifestyle, ultra-violet-sensitive vision, low visual acuity and low orbit convergence (i.e. panoramic vision).
conclusionsOverall, this study provides insight into the evolutionary history of the mammalian eye while discussing important ecological aspects of the photic paleo-environments ancestral mammals have occupied.
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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.