ArticlePeerJ2019
Expression of extraocular
Article in PeerJ, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bioinformatic Analysis and Tissue-Specific Expression of Clock Genes andAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- The visual system of the longest-living vertebrate, the Greenland shark.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- Widespread loss of sleep in independently evolved populations of wild-caught cavefish.iScience · 2025Article
- Light wavelength modulates search behavior performance in zebrafish.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Eyeless cave-dwellingScience advances · 2023Article
- Blind fish have cells that see light.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Photoreceptor genes in a trechine beetle, Trechiama kuznetsovi, living in the upper hypogean zone.Zoological letters · 2023Article
- Discovery of a body-wide photosensory array that matures in an adult-like animal and mediates eye-brain-independent movement and arousal.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Contrasting Gene Decay in Subterranean Vertebrates: Insights from Cavefishes and Fossorial Mammals.Molecular biology and evolution · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAnimals living in well-lit environments utilize optical stimuli for detecting visual information, regulating the homeostatic pacemaker, and controlling patterns of body pigmentation. In contrast, many subterranean animal species without optical stimuli have evolved regressed binocular eyes and body pigmentation. Interestingly, some fossorial and cave-dwelling animals with regressed eyes still respond to light. These light-dependent responses may be simply evolutionary residuals or they may be adaptive, where negative phototaxis provides avoidance of predator-rich surface environments. However, the relationship between these non-ocular light responses and the underlying light-sensing Opsin proteins has not been fully elucidated.
methodsTo highlight the potential functions of opsins in a blind subterranean animal, we used the Mexican cave tetra to investigate opsin gene expression in the eyes and several brain regions of both surface and cave-dwelling adults. We performed database surveys, expression analyses by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR), and light-dependent locomotor activity analysis using pinealectomized fish, one of the high-opsin expressing organs of cavefish.
resultsBased on conservative criteria, we identified 33 opsin genes in the cavefish genome. Surveys of available RNAseq data found 26 of these expressed in the surface fish eye as compared to 24 expressed in cavefish extraocular tissues, 20 of which were expressed in the brain. RT-qPCR of 26 opsins in surface and cavefish eye and brain tissues showed the highest opsin-expressing tissue in cavefish was the pineal organ, which expressed exo-rhodopsin at 72.7% of the expression levels in surface fish pineal. However, a pinealectomy resulted in no change to the light-dependent locomotor activity in juvenile cavefish and surface fish. Therefore, we conclude that, after 20,000 or more years of evolution in darkness, cavefish light-dependent basal activity is regulated by a non-pineal extraocular organ.
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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.