ArticlePLoS genetics2013
Rod monochromacy and the coevolution of cetacean retinal opsins.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers.
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Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 153 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- 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
- Spectral Tuning in Mammalian Melanopsins.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Gloger's Rule or Historical Conjecture? Tests in Mammals.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Humpback whale (Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Widespread and Convergent Evolution of Cone Monochromacy in Galeomorph Sharks.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Gene Loss DB: a curated database for gene loss in mammals-the cetacean collection.Database : the journal of biological databases and curation · 2025Article
- Unearthing the secrets of Australia's most enigmatic and cryptic mammal, the marsupial mole.Science advances · 2025Article
- Eye features and retinal photoreceptors of the nocturnal aardvark (Orycteropus afer, Tubulidentata).PloS one · 2025Article
- Parallel Spectral Tuning of a Cone Visual Pigment Provides Evidence for Ancient Deep-Sea Adaptations in Cetaceans.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- The vertebrate retina: a window into the evolution of computation in the brain.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2024Review
- 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 Frog Visual Opsins: Spectral Tuning and Adaptation to Distinct Light Environments.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Neuroanatomy of the Cetacean Sensory Systems.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Review
- Molecular Footprints on Osmoregulation-Related Genes Associated with Freshwater Colonization by Cetaceans and Sirenians.Journal of molecular evolution · 2023Article
- Interspecies Retinal Diversity and Optic Nerve Anatomy in Odontocetes.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Diversified Mammalian Visuasl Adaptations to Bright- or Dim-Light Environments.Molecular biology and evolution · 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
- Genomic insights into the secondary aquatic transition of penguins.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Ancient whale rhodopsin reconstructs dim-light vision over a major evolutionary transition: Implications for ancestral diving behavior.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cetaceans have a long history of commitment to a fully aquatic lifestyle that extends back to the Eocene. Extant species have evolved a spectacular array of adaptations in conjunction with their deployment into a diverse array of aquatic habitats. Sensory systems are among those that have experienced radical transformations in the evolutionary history of this clade. In the case of vision, previous studies have demonstrated important changes in the genes encoding rod opsin (RH1), short-wavelength sensitive opsin 1 (SWS1), and long-wavelength sensitive opsin (LWS) in selected cetaceans, but have not examined the full complement of opsin genes across the complete range of cetacean families. Here, we report protein-coding sequences for RH1 and both color opsin genes (SWS1, LWS) from representatives of all extant cetacean families. We examine competing hypotheses pertaining to the timing of blue shifts in RH1 relative to SWS1 inactivation in the early history of Cetacea, and we test the hypothesis that some cetaceans are rod monochomats. Molecular evolutionary analyses contradict the "coastal" hypothesis, wherein SWS1 was pseudogenized in the common ancestor of Cetacea, and instead suggest that RH1 was blue-shifted in the common ancestor of Cetacea before SWS1 was independently knocked out in baleen whales (Mysticeti) and in toothed whales (Odontoceti). Further, molecular evidence implies that LWS was inactivated convergently on at least five occasions in Cetacea: (1) Balaenidae (bowhead and right whales), (2) Balaenopteroidea (rorquals plus gray whale), (3) Mesoplodon bidens (Sowerby's beaked whale), (4) Physeter macrocephalus (giant sperm whale), and (5) Kogia breviceps (pygmy sperm whale). All of these cetaceans are known to dive to depths of at least 100 m where the underwater light field is dim and dominated by blue light. The knockout of both SWS1 and LWS in multiple cetacean lineages renders these taxa rod monochromats, a condition previously unknown among mammalian species.
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