Skip Navigation



MBE Advance Access published online on October 1, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msn220
This Article
Right arrow Advance Access manuscript (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
25/12/2735    most recent
msn220v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Verrelli, B. C.
Right arrow Articles by Perry, G. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Verrelli, B. C.
Right arrow Articles by Perry, G. H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Research Article

Different Selective Pressures Shape the Molecular Evolution of Color Vision in Chimpanzee and Human Populations

Brian C. Verrelli1, Cecil M. Lewis, Jr.1,*, Anne C. Stone2 and George H. Perry2,{dagger}

1 Center for Evolutionary Functional Genomics, The Biodesign Institute and School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe
2 School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe

Corresponding author: Brian C. Verrelli, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4501, tel: (480) 965-0398, fax: (480) 965-6899, E-mail: brian.verrelli{at}asu.edu.

Received for publication September 5, 2008. Accepted for publication September 25, 2008.

A population genetic analysis of the long-wavelength opsin (OPN1LW, "red") color vision gene in a global sample of 236 human nucleotide sequences had previously discovered nine amino acid replacement SNPs, which were found at high frequencies in both African and non-African populations and associated with an unusual haplotype diversity. Although this pattern of nucleotide diversity is consistent with balancing selection, it has been argued that a recombination "hotspot" or gene conversion within and between X-linked color vision genes alone may explain these patterns. The current analysis investigates a closely related primate with trichromatism to determine whether color vision gene amino acid polymorphism and signatures of adaptive evolution are characteristic of humans alone. Our population sample of 56 chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) OPN1LW sequences shows three singleton amino acid polymorphisms and no unusual recombination or LD patterns across the ~5.5-kb nucleotide region analyzed. Our comparative population genetic approach shows that the patterns of OPN1LW variation in humans and chimpanzees are consistent with positive and purifying selection within the two lineages, respectively. Although the complex role of color vision has been greatly documented in primate evolution in general, it is surprising that trichromatism has followed very different selective trajectories even between humans and our closest relatives.

* Current address: Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, Norman

{dagger} Current address: Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.