Evidence is reviewed from a wide range of studies relevant to the evolution of vertebrate
photoreceptors and phototransduction, in order to permit the synthesis of a scenario for the …

Many animals depend on the sense of vision for survival. In eumetazoans, vision requires
specialized, light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors. Light reaches the photoreceptors …

Vertebrate vision is accomplished through light-sensitive photopigments consisting of an
opsin protein bound to a chromophore. In dim light, vertebrates generally rely on a single …

Visual systems adapt to different light environments through several avenues including
optical changes to the eye and neurological changes in how light signals are processed and …

Among vertebrates, teleost eye diversity exceeds that found in all other groups. Their
spectral sensitivities range from ultraviolet to red, and the number of visual pigments varies …

Circadian rhythms are endogenous 24 h cycles that persist in the absence of external time
cues. These rhythms provide an internal representation of day length and optimize …

In craniates, opsin‐based photopigments expressed in the eye encode molecular 'light
sensors' that constitute the initial protein in photoreception and the activation of the …

A major goal of evolutionary biology is to unravel the molecular genetic mechanisms that
underlie functional diversification and adaptation. We investigated how changes in gene …

Opsin proteins are fundamental components of animal vision whose structure largely
determines the sensitivity of visual pigments to different wavelengths of light. Surprisingly …

The first member and eponym of the rhodopsin family was identified in the 1930s as the
visual pigment of the rod photoreceptor cell in the animal retina. It was found to be a …