Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 120, Issue 13, Pages -Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2220728120
Keywords
rhodopsin; whale shark; spectral tuning; night blindness; thermal stability
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The 'blue-shifted' visual pigment (RHO) of whale sharks, which adapts them to the deep-sea environment, is mainly caused by an unprecedented spectral tuning at site 94. This study has significant implications for the understanding of visual ecology in deep-diving species.
Spectral tuning of visual pigments often facilitates adaptation to new environments, and it is intriguing to study the visual ecology of pelagic sharks with secondarily expanded habitats. The whale shark, which dives into the deep sea of nearly 2,000 meters besides near-surface filter feeding, was previously shown to possess the 'blue -shifted' rhodopsin (RHO), which is a signature of deep-sea adaptation. In this study, our spectroscopy of recombinant whale shark RHO mutants revealed that this blue shift is caused dominantly by an unprecedented spectral tuning site 94. In humans, the mutation at the site causes congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB) by reducing the thermal stability of RHO. Similarly, the RHO of deep-diving whale shark has reduced thermal stability, which was experimentally shown to be achieved by site 178 and 94. RHOs having the natural substitution at site 94 are also found in some Antarctic fishes, suggesting that the blue shift by the substitution at the CSNB site associated with the reduction in thermal stability might be allowed in cold-water deep-sea habitats.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available