Multiple Episodes of Convergence in Genes of the Dim Light Vision Pathway in Bats

The molecular basis of the evolution of phenotypic characters is very complex and is poorly understood with few examples documenting the roles of multiple genes. Considering that a single gene cannot fully explain the convergence of phenotypic characters, we choose to study the convergent evolution...

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Main Authors:	Shen, Yong-Yi, Lim, Burton K., Liu, He-Qun, Liu, Jie, Irwin, David M., Zhang, Ya-Ping
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2012
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3324491/

id	pubmed-3324491
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-33244912012-04-16 Multiple Episodes of Convergence in Genes of the Dim Light Vision Pathway in Bats Shen, Yong-Yi Lim, Burton K. Liu, He-Qun Liu, Jie Irwin, David M. Zhang, Ya-Ping Research Article The molecular basis of the evolution of phenotypic characters is very complex and is poorly understood with few examples documenting the roles of multiple genes. Considering that a single gene cannot fully explain the convergence of phenotypic characters, we choose to study the convergent evolution of rod vision in two divergent bats from a network perspective. The Old World fruit bats (Pteropodidae) are non-echolocating and have binocular vision, whereas the sheath-tailed bats (Emballonuridae) are echolocating and have monocular vision; however, they both have relatively large eyes and rely more on rod vision to find food and navigate in the night. We found that the genes CRX, which plays an essential role in the differentiation of photoreceptor cells, SAG, which is involved in the desensitization of the photoactivated transduction cascade, and the photoreceptor gene RH, which is directly responsible for the perception of dim light, have undergone parallel sequence evolution in two divergent lineages of bats with larger eyes (Pteropodidae and Emballonuroidea). The multiple convergent events in the network of genes essential for rod vision is a rare phenomenon that illustrates the importance of investigating pathways and networks in the evolution of the molecular basis of phenotypic convergence. Public Library of Science 2012-04-11 /pmc/articles/PMC3324491/ /pubmed/22509324 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0034564 Text en Shen et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Shen, Yong-Yi Lim, Burton K. Liu, He-Qun Liu, Jie Irwin, David M. Zhang, Ya-Ping
spellingShingle	Shen, Yong-Yi Lim, Burton K. Liu, He-Qun Liu, Jie Irwin, David M. Zhang, Ya-Ping Multiple Episodes of Convergence in Genes of the Dim Light Vision Pathway in Bats
author_facet	Shen, Yong-Yi Lim, Burton K. Liu, He-Qun Liu, Jie Irwin, David M. Zhang, Ya-Ping
author_sort	Shen, Yong-Yi
title	Multiple Episodes of Convergence in Genes of the Dim Light Vision Pathway in Bats
title_short	Multiple Episodes of Convergence in Genes of the Dim Light Vision Pathway in Bats
title_full	Multiple Episodes of Convergence in Genes of the Dim Light Vision Pathway in Bats
title_fullStr	Multiple Episodes of Convergence in Genes of the Dim Light Vision Pathway in Bats
title_full_unstemmed	Multiple Episodes of Convergence in Genes of the Dim Light Vision Pathway in Bats
title_sort	multiple episodes of convergence in genes of the dim light vision pathway in bats
description	The molecular basis of the evolution of phenotypic characters is very complex and is poorly understood with few examples documenting the roles of multiple genes. Considering that a single gene cannot fully explain the convergence of phenotypic characters, we choose to study the convergent evolution of rod vision in two divergent bats from a network perspective. The Old World fruit bats (Pteropodidae) are non-echolocating and have binocular vision, whereas the sheath-tailed bats (Emballonuridae) are echolocating and have monocular vision; however, they both have relatively large eyes and rely more on rod vision to find food and navigate in the night. We found that the genes CRX, which plays an essential role in the differentiation of photoreceptor cells, SAG, which is involved in the desensitization of the photoactivated transduction cascade, and the photoreceptor gene RH, which is directly responsible for the perception of dim light, have undergone parallel sequence evolution in two divergent lineages of bats with larger eyes (Pteropodidae and Emballonuroidea). The multiple convergent events in the network of genes essential for rod vision is a rare phenomenon that illustrates the importance of investigating pathways and networks in the evolution of the molecular basis of phenotypic convergence.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2012
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3324491/
_version_	1611520463667724288

Multiple Episodes of Convergence in Genes of the Dim Light Vision Pathway in Bats

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