Article
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Parallel Losses of Blue Opsin Correlate with Compensatory Neofunctionalization of UV-Opsin Gene Duplicates in Aphids and Planthoppers
Version 1
: Received: 24 June 2023 / Approved: 26 June 2023 / Online: 26 June 2023 (04:26:48 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Friedrich, M. Parallel Losses of Blue Opsin Correlate with Compensatory Neofunctionalization of UV-Opsin Gene Duplicates in Aphids and Planthoppers. Insects 2023, 14, 774. Friedrich, M. Parallel Losses of Blue Opsin Correlate with Compensatory Neofunctionalization of UV-Opsin Gene Duplicates in Aphids and Planthoppers. Insects 2023, 14, 774.
Abstract
Expanding previous efforts to survey the visual opsin repertoires of the Hemiptera, this study confirms that homologs of the UV- and LW-opsin subfamilies are conserved in all Hemiptera, while the B-opsin subfamily is missing from the Heteroptera and subgroups of the Sternorrhyncha and Auchenorrhyncha, i.e. aphids (Aphidoidea) and planthoppers (Fulgoroidea), respectively. Unlike in the Heteroptera, which are characterized by multiple expansions of the LW-opsin subfamily, the lack of B-opsin correlates with the presence of tandem-duplicated UV-opsins in aphids and planthoppers. Available data on organismal wavelength sensitivities and retinal gene expression patterns lead to the conclusion that, in both groups, one UV-opsin paralog shifted from ancestral UV peak sensitivity to derived blue sensitivity, thereby compensating for the lost B-opsin. Two parallel bona fide tuning site substitutions compare to 18 non-corresponding amino acid replacements in the blue-shifted UV-opsin paralogs of aphids and planthoppers. Most notably, while the aphid blue-shifted UV-opsin clade is characterized by a replacement substitution at one of the best-documented UV/blue tuning sites (Rhodopsin site 90), the planthopper blue-shifted UV-opsin paralogs retained the ancestral lysine at this position. The combined findings identify aphid and planthopper UV-opsins as a new valuable data sample for studying adaptive opsin evolution.
Keywords
Hemiptera; opsin; gene loss; color vision; compensatory neofunctionalization; tuning site
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Insect Science
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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