ArticleEcology and evolution2018
Opsin expression predicts male nuptial color in threespine stickleback.
Article in Ecology and evolution, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phenotypic plasticity in visual opsin gene expression: a meta-analysis in teleost fish.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Pooled it
- Robust Sensory Traits Across Light Habitats: Visual Signals but Not Receptors Vary in Centrarchids Inhabiting Distinct Photic Environments.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Visual Background Choice and Light Environment Affect Male Guppy Visual Contrast.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Gene expression in male and female stickleback from populations with convergent and divergent throat coloration.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Opsin expression predicts male nuptial color in threespine stickleback.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Theoretical models of sexual selection suggest that male courtship signals can evolve through the build-up of genetic correlations between the male signal and female preference. When preference is mediated via increased sensitivity of the signal characteristics, correlations between male signal and perception/sensitivity are expected. When signal expression is limited to males, we would expect to find signal-sensitivity correlations in males. Here, we document such a correlation within a breeding population of threespine stickleback mediated by differences in opsin expression. Males with redder nuptial coloration express more long-wavelength-sensitive (LWS) opsin, making them more sensitive to orange and red. This correlation is not an artifact of shared tuning to the optical microhabitat. Such correlations are an essential feature of many models of sexual selection, and our results highlight the potential importance of opsin expression variation as a substrate for signal-preference evolution. Finally, these results suggest a potential sensory mechanism that could drive negative frequency-dependent selection via male-male competition and thus maintain variation in male nuptial color.
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Registered trials
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