Molecular palaeontology illuminates the evolution of ecdysozoan vision

James Fleming; Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen; Martin Vinther Sørensen; Tae-Yoon Park; Kazuhary Arakawa; Mark Blaxter; Lorena  Rebecchi; Roberto Guidetti; Tom Williams; Nicholas Rogers; Jakob Vinther; Davide Pisani

doi:10.1098/rspb.2018.2180

Molecular palaeontology illuminates the evolution of ecdysozoan vision

James Fleming, Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen, Martin Vinther Sørensen, Tae-Yoon Park, Kazuhary Arakawa, Mark Blaxter, Lorena Rebecchi, Roberto Guidetti, Tom Williams, Nicholas Rogers, Jakob Vinther, Davide Pisani

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Colour vision is known to have arisen only twice—once in Vertebrata and once within the Ecdysozoa, in Arthropoda. However, the evolutionary history of ecdysozoan vision is unclear. At the molecular level, visual pigments, composed of a chromophore and a protein belonging to the opsin family, have different spectral sensitivities and these mediate colour vision. At the morphological level, ecdysozoan vision is conveyed by eyes of variable levels of complexity; from the simple ocelli observed in the velvet worms (phylum Onychophora) to the marvellously complex eyes of insects, spiders, and crustaceans. Here, we explore the evolution of ecdysozoan vision at both the molecular and morphological level; combining analysis of a large-scale opsin dataset that includes previously unknown ecdysozoan opsins with morphological analyses of key Cambrian fossils with preserved eye structures. We found that while several non-arthropod ecdysozoan lineages have multiple opsins, arthropod multi-opsin vision evolved through a series of gene duplications that were fixed in a period of 35 – 71 million years (Ma) along the stem arthropod lineage. Our integrative study of the fossil and molecular record of vision indicates that fossils with more complex eyes were likely to have possessed a larger complement of opsin genes.

Original language	English
Article number	20182180
Journal	Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Volume	285
Number of pages	9
ISSN	0962-8452
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.2180
Publication status	Published - 5 Dec 2018

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title = "Molecular palaeontology illuminates the evolution of ecdysozoan vision",

abstract = "Colour vision is known to have arisen only twice—once in Vertebrata and once within the Ecdysozoa, in Arthropoda. However, the evolutionary history of ecdysozoan vision is unclear. At the molecular level, visual pigments, composed of a chromophore and a protein belonging to the opsin family, have different spectral sensitivities and these mediate colour vision. At the morphological level, ecdysozoan vision is conveyed by eyes of variable levels of complexity; from the simple ocelli observed in the velvet worms (phylum Onychophora) to the marvellously complex eyes of insects, spiders, and crustaceans. Here, we explore the evolution of ecdysozoan vision at both the molecular and morphological level; combining analysis of a large-scale opsin dataset that includes previously unknown ecdysozoan opsins with morphological analyses of key Cambrian fossils with preserved eye structures. We found that while several non-arthropod ecdysozoan lineages have multiple opsins, arthropod multi-opsin vision evolved through a series of gene duplications that were fixed in a period of 35 – 71 million years (Ma) along the stem arthropod lineage. Our integrative study of the fossil and molecular record of vision indicates that fossils with more complex eyes were likely to have possessed a larger complement of opsin genes.",

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AU - Fleming, James

AU - Kristensen, Reinhardt Møbjerg

AU - Sørensen, Martin Vinther

AU - Park, Tae-Yoon

AU - Arakawa, Kazuhary

AU - Blaxter, Mark

AU - Rebecchi, Lorena

AU - Guidetti, Roberto

AU - Williams, Tom

AU - Rogers, Nicholas

AU - Vinther, Jakob

AU - Pisani, Davide

PY - 2018/12/5

Y1 - 2018/12/5

N2 - Colour vision is known to have arisen only twice—once in Vertebrata and once within the Ecdysozoa, in Arthropoda. However, the evolutionary history of ecdysozoan vision is unclear. At the molecular level, visual pigments, composed of a chromophore and a protein belonging to the opsin family, have different spectral sensitivities and these mediate colour vision. At the morphological level, ecdysozoan vision is conveyed by eyes of variable levels of complexity; from the simple ocelli observed in the velvet worms (phylum Onychophora) to the marvellously complex eyes of insects, spiders, and crustaceans. Here, we explore the evolution of ecdysozoan vision at both the molecular and morphological level; combining analysis of a large-scale opsin dataset that includes previously unknown ecdysozoan opsins with morphological analyses of key Cambrian fossils with preserved eye structures. We found that while several non-arthropod ecdysozoan lineages have multiple opsins, arthropod multi-opsin vision evolved through a series of gene duplications that were fixed in a period of 35 – 71 million years (Ma) along the stem arthropod lineage. Our integrative study of the fossil and molecular record of vision indicates that fossils with more complex eyes were likely to have possessed a larger complement of opsin genes.

AB - Colour vision is known to have arisen only twice—once in Vertebrata and once within the Ecdysozoa, in Arthropoda. However, the evolutionary history of ecdysozoan vision is unclear. At the molecular level, visual pigments, composed of a chromophore and a protein belonging to the opsin family, have different spectral sensitivities and these mediate colour vision. At the morphological level, ecdysozoan vision is conveyed by eyes of variable levels of complexity; from the simple ocelli observed in the velvet worms (phylum Onychophora) to the marvellously complex eyes of insects, spiders, and crustaceans. Here, we explore the evolution of ecdysozoan vision at both the molecular and morphological level; combining analysis of a large-scale opsin dataset that includes previously unknown ecdysozoan opsins with morphological analyses of key Cambrian fossils with preserved eye structures. We found that while several non-arthropod ecdysozoan lineages have multiple opsins, arthropod multi-opsin vision evolved through a series of gene duplications that were fixed in a period of 35 – 71 million years (Ma) along the stem arthropod lineage. Our integrative study of the fossil and molecular record of vision indicates that fossils with more complex eyes were likely to have possessed a larger complement of opsin genes.

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DO - 10.1098/rspb.2018.2180

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SN - 0962-8452

VL - 285

JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

M1 - 20182180

ER -

Molecular palaeontology illuminates the evolution of ecdysozoan vision

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