Opsins, combined with a chromophore, are the primary light-sensing molecules in animals and are crucial for color vision. Throughout animal evolution, duplications and losses of opsin proteins are common, but it is unclear what is driving these gains and losses. Light availability is implicated, and dim environments are often associated with low opsin diversity and loss. Correlations between high opsin diversity and bright environments, however, are tenuous. To test if increased light availability is associated with opsin diversification, we examined diel niche and identified opsins using transcriptomes and genomes of 175 butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). We found 14 independent opsin duplications associated with bright environments. Estimating their rates of evolution revealed that opsins from diurnal taxa evolve faster—at least 13 amino acids were identified with higher dN/dS rates, with a subset close enough to the chromophore to tune the opsin. These results demonstrate that high light availability increases opsin diversity and evolution rate in Lepidoptera.

While in the movie Deadpool it is possible for a human to recreate an arm from scratch, in reality plants can even surpass that. Not only can they regenerate lost parts, but also the whole plant body can be reborn from a few existing cells. Despite the decades old realization that plant cells possess the ability to regenerate a complete shoot and root system, it is only now that the underlying mechanisms are being unraveled. De novo plant regeneration involves the initiation of regenerative mass, acquisition of the pluripotent state, reconstitution of stem cells and assembly of regulatory interactions. Recent studies have furthered our understanding on the making of a complete plant system in the absence of embryonic positional cues. We review the recent studies probing the molecular mechanisms of de novo plant regeneration in response to external inductive cues and our current knowledge of direct reprogramming of root to shoot and vice versa. We further discuss how de novo regeneration can be exploited to meet the demands of green culture industries and to serve as a general model to address the fundamental questions of regeneration across the plant kingdom.

Opsins are the primary light-sensing molecules in animals. Opsins have peak sensitivities to specific wavelengths which allows for color discrimination. The opsin protein family has undergone duplications and losses, dynamically expanding and contracting the number of opsins, throughout invertebrate evolution, but it is unclear what drives this diversity. Light availability, however, appears to play a significant role. Dim environments are associated with low opsin diversity in deepsea fishes and cave-dwelling animals. Correlations between high opsin diversity and bright environments, however, are tenuous. Insects are a good system to test whether opsin expansion is associated with greater light availability because they are enormously diverse and consequently display large variation in diel activity. To test this, we used 200 insect transcriptomes and examined the patterns of opsin diversity associated with diel-niche. We focused on the butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) because this group has significant variation in diel-niche, substantial opsin recovery (n=100), and particularly well-curated transcriptomes. We identified opsin duplications using ancestral state reconstruction and examined rates of opsin evolution, and compared them across dielniches. We find Lepidoptera species active in high light environments have independently expanded their opsins at least 10 times. Opsins from diurnal taxa also evolve faster; 13 amino acids were identified across different opsins that were under diversifying selection. Structural models reveal that four of these amino acids overlap with opsin color-tuning regions. By parsing nocturnal and diurnal switches, we show that light environment can influence gene diversity, selection, and protein structure of opsins in Lepidoptera.

S h o r t C omm u n fi c a t fi o n A r e p o r t o n s om e b u t t e r f fl fi e s ( L e p fi d o p t e r a ) f r om L a d a k h fi n J amm u & K a s hm fi r a n d L a h a u fl fi n H fim a c h a fl P r a d e s h , I n d fi a S a n j a y S o n d h fi , B a fl a k r fi s h n a n V a fl a p p fi fl , Y a s h S o n d h fi & A n c h a fl S o n d h fi 2 6 M a r c h 2 0 1 7 | V o fl . 9 | N o . 3 | P p . 9 9 7 1 -9 9 8 7 1 0 . 1 1 6 0 9 / j o t . 3 0 2 4 . 9 . 3 . 9 9 7 1 -9 9 8 7 T h r e a t e n e d T a x a T h e J o u r n a fl o f T h r e a t e n e d T a x a fi s d e d fi c a t e d t o b u fi fl d fi n g e v fi d e n c e f o r c o n s e r v a fi o n g fl o b a fl fl y b y p u b fl fi s h fi n g p e e r -r e v fi ew e d a r fi c fl e s o n fl fi n e e v e r y m o n t h a t a r e a s o n a b fl y r a p fi d r a t e a t www . t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g. A fl fl a r fi c fl e s p u b fl fi s h e d fi n J o T T a r e r e g fi s t e r e d u n d e r C r e a fi v e C omm o n s A t r fi b u fi o n 4 . 0 I n t e r n a fi o n a fl L fi c e n s e u n fl e s s o t h e rw fi s e m e n fi o n e d . J o T T a fl fl ow s u n r e s t r fi c t e d u s e o f a r fi c fl e s fi n a n y m e d fi um , r e p r o d u c fi o n , a n d d fi s t r fi b u fi o n b y p r o v fi d fi n g a d e q u a t e c r e d fi t t o t h e a u t h o r s a n d t h e s o u r c e o f p u b fl fi c a fi o n .O P E N A C C E S S P a r t n e r www . t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g I S S N 0 9 7 4 -7 9 0 7 ( O n fl fi n e ) | I S S N 0 9 7 4 -7 8 9 3 ( P r fi n t ) B u fi fl d fi n g e v fi d e n c e f o r c o n s e r v a fi o n g fl o b a fl fl y J o u r n a fl o f T h r e a t e n e d T a x a P u b fl fi s h e r / H o s t F o r F o c u s , S c o p e , A fim s , P o fl fi c fi e s a n d G u fi d e fl fi n e s v fi s fi t h t p : / / t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g / A b o u t _ J o T T . a s p F o r A r fi c fl e S u bm fi s s fi o n G u fi d e fl fi n e s v fi s fi t h t p : / / t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g / S u bm fi s s fi o n _ G u fi d e fl fi n e s . a s p F o r P o fl fi c fi e s a g a fi n s t S c fi e n fi fi c M fi s c o n d u c t v fi s fi t h t p : / / t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g / J o T T _ P o fl fi c y _ a g a fi n s t _ S c fi e n fi fi c _M fi s c o n d u c t . a s p F o r r e p r fi n t s c o n t a c t < fi n f o@ t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g > Funding: None. Competing interests:The authors declare no competing interests. Acknowledgements:We would like to thank Juma from Leh who helped in organizing the entire logistics of our visit to the Ladakh region; and Chris Chadwell from the UK, who assisted in identifying and confirming some of the flower species identities. The butterflies of Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir and Lahaul and Spiti District, Himachal Pradesh are not well studied. The Ladakh region, part of the inner Himalaya, is remote and not easily accessible explaining the paucity of information on Lepidoptera. Moreover, being a cold desert, butterfly activity is largely restricted to the May to September p...

Two-hundred-and-forty-eight species of moths were recorded during surveys conducted over 40 nights in Dehradun and Mussoorie in Dehradun District and Devalsari in Tehri Garhwal District in Uttarakhand.