A unique visual pigment expressed in green, red and deep-red receptors in the eye of the small white butterfly,<i>Pieris rapae crucivora</i>

Wakakuwa, Motohiro; Stavenga, Doekele G.; Kurasawa, Masumi; Arikawa, Kentaro

doi:10.1242/jeb.01078

Cited by 74 publications

(98 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…It is therefore possible that L. rubidus has pentachromatic vision in ventral retina based primarily on four opsins and this pink non-opsin pigment. Filtering pigments of similar effect have been observed for the LW receptors of Papilio xuthus and Pieris rapae (Arikawa et al, 1999;Wakakuwa et al, 2004), and have been shown to be important for butterfly color vision (Zaccardi et al, 2006).…”

Section: Non-overlapping Expression Of Uvrh Brh1 and Brh2mentioning

confidence: 63%

Beauty in the eye of the beholder: the two blue opsins of lycaenid butterflies and the opsin gene-driven evolution of sexually dimorphic eyes

Sison-Mangus

Bernard

Lampel

et al. 2006

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARY Although previous investigations have shown that wing coloration is an important component of social signaling in butterflies, the contribution of opsin evolution to sexual wing color dichromatism and interspecific divergence remains largely unexplored. Here we report that the butterfly Lycaena rubidus has evolved sexually dimorphic eyes due to changes in the regulation of opsin expression patterns to match the contrasting life histories of males and females. The L. rubidus eye contains four visual pigments with peak sensitivities in the ultraviolet (UV;λ max=360 nm), blue (B; λmax=437 nm and 500 nm, respectively) and long (LW; λmax=568 nm) wavelength range. By combining in situ hybridization of cloned opsinencoding cDNAs with epi-microspectrophotometry, we found that all four opsin mRNAs and visual pigments are expressed in the eyes in a sex-specific manner. The male dorsal eye, which contains only UV and B (λmax=437 nm)visual pigments, indeed expresses two short wavelength opsin mRNAs, UVRh and BRh1. The female dorsal eye, which also has the UV and B (λmax=437 nm) visual pigments, also contains the LW visual pigment, and likewise expresses UVRh, BRh1 and LWRh mRNAs. Unexpectedly, in the female dorsal eye, we also found BRh1 co-expressed with LWRh in the R3-8 photoreceptor cells. The ventral eye of both sexes, on the other hand, contains all four visual pigments and expresses all four opsin mRNAs in a non-overlapping fashion. Surprisingly, we found that the 500 nm visual pigment is encoded by a duplicate blue opsin gene, BRh2. Further, using molecular phylogenetic methods we trace this novel blue opsin gene to a duplication event at the base of the Polyommatine+Thecline+Lycaenine radiation. The blue opsin gene duplication may help explain the blueness of blue lycaenid butterflies.

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Section: Non-overlapping Expression Of Uvrh Brh1 and Brh2mentioning

confidence: 63%

Beauty in the eye of the beholder: the two blue opsins of lycaenid butterflies and the opsin gene-driven evolution of sexually dimorphic eyes

Sison-Mangus

Bernard

Lampel

et al. 2006

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…For the filter acting on the R1 and R2 photoreceptors, an effective absorbance of ϳ0.6 follows from Figure 8b. The pigment filter will also act on the proximal photoreceptors, and its effective absorbance will be Ͼ0.6 [Wakakuwa et al (2004), their Fig. 4c].…”

Section: Mechanism Of Spectral Tuning By Fluorescing Pigmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The R3 and R4 photoreceptors of both males and females are G photoreceptors, because of a visual pigment peaking at 563 nm, PrL. The proximal photoreceptors, R5-R8, of all ommatidia also express PrL, but depending on the pale-red or deep-red pigmentation around the rhabdom, the photoreceptors are red or deep-red photoreceptors, with very narrow sensitivity bands ϳ620 and ϳ640 nm (Wakakuwa et al, 2004). The latter spectral types presumably serve in the discrimination of subtle color changes of green leaves in the long-wavelength range.…”

Section: Molecular Design Of Butterfly Eyesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The sensitivity spectra occasionally deviate severely from the standard shape of visual pigment absorption spectra because of optical factors, of which spectrally selective filters are the most important (Arikawa et al, 1999a,b;Douglas and Marshall, 1999). For instance, in the eyes of the male small white butterfly, Pieris rapae crucivora, pale-red and deep-red pigment clusters that surround the rhabdoms act as long-pass filters, thus creating narrow-band red or deep-red spectral sensitivities (Qiu et al, 2002;Qiu and Arikawa, 2003b;Wakakuwa et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sexual Dimorphism of Short-Wavelength Photoreceptors in the Small White Butterfly,Pieris rapae crucivora

Arikawa¹,

Wakakuwa²,

Qiu³

et al. 2005

J. Neurosci.

120

141

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The eyes of the female small white butterfly, Pieris rapae crucivora, are furnished with three classes of short-wavelength photoreceptors, with sensitivity peaks in the ultraviolet (UV) ( max ϭ 360 nm), violet (V) ( max ϭ 425 nm), and blue (B) ( max ϭ 453 nm) wavelength range. Analyzing the spectral origin of the photoreceptors, we isolated three novel mRNAs encoding opsins corresponding to shortwavelength-absorbing visual pigments. We localized the opsin mRNAs in the retinal tissue and found that each of the short-wavelengthsensitive photoreceptor classes exclusively expresses one of the opsin mRNAs. We, accordingly, termed the visual pigments PrUV, PrV, and PrB, respectively. The eyes of the male small white butterfly also use three classes of short-wavelength photoreceptors that equally uniquely express PrUV, PrV, and PrB. However, whereas the spectral sensitivities of the male photoreceptors with PrUV and PrB closely correspond to those of the female, the male photoreceptor expressing PrV has a double-peaked blue (dB) spectral sensitivity, strongly deviating from the spectral sensitivity of the female V photoreceptor. The male eyes contain a pigment that distinctly fluoresces under blue-violet as well as UV excitation light. It coexists with the dB photoreceptors and presumably acts as a spectral filter with an absorbance spectrum peaking at 416 nm. The narrow-band spectral sensitivity of the male dB photoreceptors probably evolved to improve the discrimination of the different wing colors of male and female P. rapae crucivora in the short-wavelength region of the spectrum.

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“…The eyes contain a few classes of randomly distributed ommatidia, with often a marked dorso-ventral regionalization (Arikawa and Stavenga 1997;Kitamoto et al 1998). A similar situation exists in the pierid butterfly Pieris rapae (Qiu et al 2002;Wakakuwa et al 2004) and the nymphalid Vanessa cardui (Briscoe et al 2003). Heterogeneity and regionalization seem to be general characteristics of butterfly eyes (Stavenga et al 2001;Warrant et al 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Visual pigment spectra of the comma butterfly, Polygonia c-album, derived from in vivo epi-illumination microspectrophotometry

Vanhoutte

Stavenga

2005

J Comp Physiol A

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Visual pigment spectra of the comma butterfly, Polygonia c-album, derived from in vivo epiillumination nation microspectrophotometry Vanhoutte, KJA; Stavenga, DG Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Abstract The visual pigments in the compound eye of the comma butterfly, Polygonia c-album, were investigated in a specially designed epi-illumination microspectrophotometer. Absorption changes due to photochemical conversions of the visual pigments, or due to lightindependent visual pigment decay and regeneration, were studied by measuring the eye shine, i.e., the light reflected from the tapetum located in each ommatidium proximal to the visual pigment-bearing rhabdom. The obtained absorbance difference spectra demonstrated the dominant presence of a green visual pigment. The rhodopsin and its metarhodopsin have absorption peak wavelengths at 532 nm and 492 nm, respectively. The metarhodopsin is removed from the rhabdom with a time constant of 15 min and the rhodopsin is regenerated with a time constant of 59 min (room temperature). A UV rhodopsin with metarhodopsin absorbing maximally at 467 nm was revealed, and evidence for a blue rhodopsin was obtained indirectly.

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A unique visual pigment expressed in green, red and deep-red receptors in the eye of the small white butterfly,Pieris rapae crucivora

Cited by 74 publications

References 29 publications

Beauty in the eye of the beholder: the two blue opsins of lycaenid butterflies and the opsin gene-driven evolution of sexually dimorphic eyes

Beauty in the eye of the beholder: the two blue opsins of lycaenid butterflies and the opsin gene-driven evolution of sexually dimorphic eyes

Sexual Dimorphism of Short-Wavelength Photoreceptors in the Small White Butterfly,Pieris rapae crucivora

Visual pigment spectra of the comma butterfly, Polygonia c-album, derived from in vivo epi-illumination microspectrophotometry

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