ArticleBMC biology2022
Transcriptomic evidence for visual adaptation during the aquatic to terrestrial metamorphosis in leopard frogs.
Article in BMC biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond species ranges: How functional diversity and integrated life history can inform conservation priorities.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Caecilians maintain a functional long-wavelength-sensitive cone opsin gene despite signatures of relaxed selection and more than 200 million years of fossoriality.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2025Article
- Microstructure and transcriptomics reveal rapid light-induced visual plasticity in the non-obligate cave dweller Oreolalax rhodostigmatus (Megophryidae, Anura).BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Caecilians maintain a functional long-wavelength-sensitive cone opsin gene despite signatures of relaxed selection and more than 200 million years of fossoriality.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The Amphibian Genomics Consortium: advancing genomic and genetic resources for amphibian research and conservation.BMC genomics · 2024Review
- The Amphibian Genomics Consortium: advancing genomic and genetic resources for amphibian research and conservation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- The link between gene duplication and divergent patterns of gene expression across a complex life cycle.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Diversity and Molecular Evolution of Nonvisual Opsin Genes across Environmental, Developmental, and Morphological Adaptations in Frogs.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- The genetic regulatory architecture and epigenomic basis for age-related changes in rattlesnake venom.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Diversity and Evolution of Frog Visual Opsins: Spectral Tuning and Adaptation to Distinct Light Environments.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Genetic independence between traits separated by metamorphosis is widespread but varies with biological function.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Evolution of visual guanylyl cyclases and their activating proteins with respect to clade and species-specific visual system adaptation.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Article
- Development of dim-light vision in the nocturnal reef fish family Holocentridae. I: Retinal gene expression.The Journal of experimental biology · 2022Article
- Transcriptomic evidence for visual adaptation during the aquatic to terrestrial metamorphosis in leopard frogs.BMC biology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDifferences in morphology, ecology, and behavior through ontogeny can result in opposing selective pressures at different life stages. Most animals, however, transition through two or more distinct phenotypic phases, which is hypothesized to allow each life stage to adapt more freely to its ecological niche. How this applies to sensory systems, and in particular how sensory systems adapt across life stages at the molecular level, is not well understood. Here, we used whole-eye transcriptomes to investigate differences in gene expression between tadpole and juvenile southern leopard frogs (Lithobates sphenocephalus), which rely on vision in aquatic and terrestrial light environments, respectively. Because visual physiology changes with light levels, we also tested the effect of light and dark exposure.
resultsWe found 42% of genes were differentially expressed in the eyes of tadpoles versus juveniles and 5% for light/dark exposure. Analyses targeting a curated subset of visual genes revealed significant differential expression of genes that control aspects of visual function and development, including spectral sensitivity and lens composition. Finally, microspectrophotometry of photoreceptors confirmed shifts in spectral sensitivity predicted by the expression results, consistent with adaptation to distinct light environments.
conclusionsOverall, we identified extensive expression-level differences in the eyes of tadpoles and juveniles related to observed morphological and physiological changes through metamorphosis and corresponding adaptive shifts to improve vision in the distinct aquatic and terrestrial light environments these frogs inhabit during their life cycle. More broadly, these results suggest that decoupling of gene expression can mediate the opposing selection pressures experienced by organisms with complex life cycles that inhabit different environmental conditions throughout ontogeny.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.