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MBE Advance Access originally published online on November 4, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2009 26(2):299-311; doi:10.1093/molbev/msn251
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© 2008 The Authors
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Research Articles

Molecular Characterization of Visual Pigments in Branchiopoda and the Evolution of Opsins in Arthropoda

Kazuyuki Kashiyama*, Takaharu Seki{dagger}, Hideharu Numata* and Shin G. Goto*

* Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan
{dagger} Division of Health Science, Osaka Kyoiku University, Kashiwara, Japan

E-mail: shingoto{at}sci.osaka-cu.ac.jp.

Accepted for publication October 26, 2008.

Studies on color vision in invertebrates have focused primarily on insect visual pigments, with little attention given to crustacean visual pigments. None of the blue–green-, blue-, or ultraviolet (UV)-sensitive–opsins have been identified in crustaceans. In addition, the discussion of visual pigments has been limited to long-wavelength-sensitive opsins in Pancrustacea. Here, we focused on Branchiopoda (Crustacea), which is a sister group of Hexapoda including insects. In the tadpole shrimp Triops granarius, the visual pigment chromophore was retinal. Multiple opsins were isolated from each of three branchiopod species, T. granarius, Triops longicaudatus, and the fairy shrimp Branchinella kugenumaensis (five, five, and four opsins from these species, respectively). Phylogenetic analyses and the presence of a lysine residue corresponding to position 90 in bovine rhodopsin suggested that three of the branchiopod opsins comprise UV-sensitive pigments. In addition, the phylogenetic relationships between insect and branchiopod UV-sensitive opsins revealed that the divergence of blue- and UV-sensitive pigments predates the Branchiopoda and Insecta divergence. The other branchiopod opsins show distant relationships to other known insect opsins and form novel clusters. The present results strongly suggest that the ancestral arthropod of the Chelicerata–Pancrustacea lineages possessed at least four types of opsins. The ancestors of Pancrustacea and the Insecta–Branchiopoda lineages possessed at least five and six types of opsins, respectively. Our results suggest that in the evolutionary process associated with each lineage, several opsins appeared and diversified with repeated gene duplication, of which some have been lost in some taxa.

Key Words: opsin • Branchiopoda • Triops • Branchinella • visual pigments • retinal

David Irwin, Associate Editor


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