Researchers Explore Evolution of Moth Visual Opsin Family

May 12, 2014     Email"> PrintText Size

Because visual genes likely evolved in response to their ambient photic environment, the dichotomy between closely related nocturnal moths and diurnal butterflies forms an ideal basis for investigating their evolution.

Prof. FU Jinzhong and Dr. LV Bin  of Chengdu Institute of Biology collaborated with researchers of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences to investigate whether the visual genes of moths are associated with nocturnal dim-light environments or not. They cloned long-wavelength (R), blue (B) and ultraviolet (UV) opsin genes from 12 species of wild-captured moths and examined their evolutionary functions. Strong purifying selection appeared to constrain the functions of the genes. Dark-treatment altered the levels of mRNA expression in moths such that R and UV opsins were up-regulated after dark-treatment, the latter faster than the former.

However, B opsins were not significantly up-regulated. Consequently, environmental conditions appeared to affect the patterns of expression. These findings and the proportional expression of opsins suggested that moths potentially possessed color vision and the visual system played a more important role in the ecology of moths than previously appreciated. This aspect did not differ much from that of diurnal butterflies.

The results were published on the open-access journal PLoS ONE.