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Partial Opsin Sequences Suggest UV-Sensitive Vision is Widespread in Caudata

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Abstract

Ultraviolet (UV) vision exists in several animal groups. Intuitively, one would expect this trait to be favoured in species living in bright environments, where UV light is the most present. However, UV sensitivity, as deduced from sequences of UV photoreceptors and/or ocular media transmittance, is also present in nocturnal species, raising questions about the selective pressure maintaining this perceptual ability. Amphibians are among the most nocturnal vertebrates but their visual ecology remains poorly understood relative to other groups. Perhaps because many of these species breed in environments that filter out a large part of UV radiation, physiological and behavioural studies of UV sensitivity in this group are scarce. We investigated the extent of UV vision in Caudata, the order of amphibians with the most nocturnal habits. We could recover sequences of the UV sensitive SWS1 opsin in 40 out of 58 species, belonging to 6 families. In all of these species, the evidence suggests the presence of functional SWS1 opsins under purifying selection, potentially allowing UV vision. Interestingly, most species whose opsin genes failed to amplify exhibited particular ecological features that could drive the loss of UV vision. This likely wide distribution of functional UV photoreceptors in Caudata sheds a new light on the visual ecology of amphibians and questions the function of UV vision in nocturnal animal species.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by ANR-2011-BSV7-001 project SENSHYBLE, and conducted with the approval of Préfectures de Maine-et-Loire and Essonne in accordance with the current laws in France. We are very thankful to Arnaud Jamin for providing most samples and Stéphane Sourice for technical assistance. PM carried out data acquisition, analysis and interpretation, and drafted the manucript. AÖ contributed to the conception of the study and data analysis, and revised the manuscript. MT contributed to the conception and the revision of the manuscript. DP contributed to data analysis and the revision of the manuscript. JS contributed to the conception of the study, data analysis and interpretation, and drafted the manuscript.

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  1. GECCO, Université d’Angers, 2 Bd Lavoisier, 49045, Angers, France

    Pascal Mège, Damien Picard & Jean Secondi

  2. Department of Ecology and Biodiversity Management, UMR 7179 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 91800, Brunoy, France

    Pascal Mège & Marc Théry

  3. Department of Animal Ecology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Anders Ödeen

  4. UMR CNRS 6554 LETG, Université d’Angers, Angers, France

    Damien Picard & Jean Secondi

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  1. Pascal Mège
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Mège, P., Ödeen, A., Théry, M. et al. Partial Opsin Sequences Suggest UV-Sensitive Vision is Widespread in Caudata. Evol Biol 43, 109–118 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-015-9353-4

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