Multiple genes permit closely related fish species to mix and match their color vision

Multiple genes permit closely related fish species to mix and match their color vision

Source: eurekalert

10/10/2005

Multiple genes permit closely related fish species to mix and match their color vision

Vision, like other biological attributes, is shaped by evolution through environmental pressures and demands, and even closely-related species that are in other ways very similar might respond to their particular environments by interpreting the visual world slightly differently, using photoreceptors that are attuned to particular wavelengths of light.

By studying a special group of closely-related fish species inhabiting the Great Lakes of Africa, researchers have uncovered clues to understanding how the components of color vision can undergo change over a relatively short period of evolutionary time.

The work is reported by James K. Bowmaker of University College London, Karen L. Carleton of the University of New Hampshire, and their colleagues.