Bat eyes have ultraviolet-sensitive cone photoreceptors

Mammalian retinae have rod photoreceptors for night vision and cone photoreceptors for daylight and colour vision. For colour discrimination, most mammals possess two cone populations with two visual pigments (opsins) that have absorption maxima at short wavelengths (blue or ultraviolet light) and l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2009-07, Vol.4 (7), p.e6390-e6390
Main Authors: Müller, Brigitte, Glösmann, Martin, Peichl, Leo, Knop, Gabriel C, Hagemann, Cornelia, Ammermüller, Josef
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Analysis
Animals
Auditory discrimination
Base Sequence
Bats
Bats (Animals)
Brain research
Chiroptera - physiology
Color
Color vision
Cones
Cornea
Darkness
Daylight
DNA Primers
Echolocation
Echolocation (Physiology)
Electroretinography
Evolution
Eye (anatomy)
Flowers
Forage
Immunoglobulins
Immunohistochemistry
In Situ Hybridization
Information processing
Mammals
Marsupials
Nectar
Neurobiology
Neuroscience
Neuroscience/Natural and Synthetic Vision
Neuroscience/Sensory Systems
Neurosciences
Night vision
Opsins
Orientation
Orientation behavior
Photopigments
Photoreception
Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate - physiology
Photoreceptors
Physiology/Sensory Systems
Pigments
Retina
Sensitivity
Sensitivity analysis
Thyroid gland
Twilight glow
Ultraviolet radiation
Ultraviolet Rays
Urine
Visual discrimination
Visual pigments
Wavelengths
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Summary:Mammalian retinae have rod photoreceptors for night vision and cone photoreceptors for daylight and colour vision. For colour discrimination, most mammals possess two cone populations with two visual pigments (opsins) that have absorption maxima at short wavelengths (blue or ultraviolet light) and long wavelengths (green or red light). Microchiropteran bats, which use echolocation to navigate and forage in complete darkness, have long been considered to have pure rod retinae. Here we use opsin immunohistochemistry to show that two phyllostomid microbats, Glossophaga soricina and Carollia perspicillata, possess a significant population of cones and express two cone opsins, a shortwave-sensitive (S) opsin and a longwave-sensitive (L) opsin. A substantial population of cones expresses S opsin exclusively, whereas the other cones mostly coexpress L and S opsin. S opsin gene analysis suggests ultraviolet (UV, wavelengths
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0006390