The standing dogma of eye evolution is challenged with the discovery of an invertebrate that sees light like vertebrates do, rather than like their more closely related cousins, according to a study published today (March 1) in EvoDevo.
"Now the story is more complicated than it was before, when we thought there was a clear-cut division between vertebrates and invertebrates," said lead author linkurl:Yale Passamaneck;http://www.kewalo.hawaii.edu/martindale/mmpeople.html from Kewalo Marine Laboratory at the University of Hawaii.Animal eyes vary in appearance, but the light-sensing photoreceptor cells within them come in just two varieties: ciliary and rhabdomeric. Vertebrates see light with the ciliary type, which sports a folded, hair-like cilium, while invertebrates see with rhabdomeric photoreceptors, which typically bear bristles. In 2004, biologists hypothesized that an ancestor of both invertebrates and vertebrates sensed light with rhabdomeric receptors -- but also had ciliary...
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Image: Nina Furchheim, Berlin Museum of Natural History |
Terebratalia transversaciliary-opsin
ciliary-opsinciliary-opsinciliary-opsinY. Passamaneck, et al., "Ciliary photoreceptors in the cerebral eyes of a protostome larva," linkurl:EvoDevo,;http://www.evodevojournal.com/content/2/1/6/abstract 2:6, 2011.
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Image: Yale Passamaneck |
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