New paper: Vision genes in fishes
New paper from work done in Konstanz and now led by Julian Torres-Dowdall, " Rapid and parallel adaptive evolution of the visual system of Neotropical Midas cichlid fishes" in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution This study represented an excellent combination of field experiments for collections and detailed characterisation of environment, sequencing the full complement of opsin genes and expression, and assessing the structures of the eye. Abstract: Midas cichlid fish are a Central American species flock containing 13 described species that has been dated to only few thousand years old, a historical timescale infrequently associated with speciation. Their radiation involved the colonization of several clear water crater lakes from two turbid great lakes. Therefore, Midas cichlids have been subjected to widely varying photic conditions during their radiation. Being a primary signal relay for information from the environment to the organism, the visual system is...