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Hadyniak SE, Hagen JFD, Eldred KC, Brenerman B, Hussey KA, McCoy RC, Sauria MEG, Kuchenbecker JA, Reh T, Glass I, Neitz M, Neitz J, Taylor J, Johnston RJ. Retinoic acid signaling regulates spatiotemporal specification of human green and red cones. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002464. [PMID: 38206904 PMCID: PMC10783767 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002464] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Trichromacy is unique to primates among placental mammals, enabled by blue (short/S), green (medium/M), and red (long/L) cones. In humans, great apes, and Old World monkeys, cones make a poorly understood choice between M and L cone subtype fates. To determine mechanisms specifying M and L cones, we developed an approach to visualize expression of the highly similar M- and L-opsin mRNAs. M-opsin was observed before L-opsin expression during early human eye development, suggesting that M cones are generated before L cones. In adult human tissue, the early-developing central retina contained a mix of M and L cones compared to the late-developing peripheral region, which contained a high proportion of L cones. Retinoic acid (RA)-synthesizing enzymes are highly expressed early in retinal development. High RA signaling early was sufficient to promote M cone fate and suppress L cone fate in retinal organoids. Across a human population sample, natural variation in the ratios of M and L cone subtypes was associated with a noncoding polymorphism in the NR2F2 gene, a mediator of RA signaling. Our data suggest that RA promotes M cone fate early in development to generate the pattern of M and L cones across the human retina.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah E. Hadyniak
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
| | - Joanna F. D. Hagen
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
| | - Kiara C. Eldred
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
- Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington State, United States
| | - Boris Brenerman
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
| | - Katarzyna A. Hussey
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
| | - Rajiv C. McCoy
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
| | - Michael E. G. Sauria
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
| | - James A. Kuchenbecker
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington State, United States
| | - Thomas Reh
- Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington State, United States
| | - Ian Glass
- Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington State, United States
| | - Maureen Neitz
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington State, United States
| | - Jay Neitz
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington State, United States
| | - James Taylor
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
| | - Robert J. Johnston
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
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Hagen JFD, Roberts NS, Johnston RJ. The evolutionary history and spectral tuning of vertebrate visual opsins. Dev Biol 2023; 493:40-66. [PMID: 36370769 PMCID: PMC9729497 DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2022.10.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2021] [Revised: 10/27/2022] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Many animals depend on the sense of vision for survival. In eumetazoans, vision requires specialized, light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors. Light reaches the photoreceptors and triggers the excitation of light-detecting proteins called opsins. Here, we describe the story of visual opsin evolution from the ancestral bilaterian to the extant vertebrate lineages. We explain the mechanisms determining color vision of extant vertebrates, focusing on opsin gene losses, duplications, and the expression regulation of vertebrate opsins. We describe the sequence variation both within and between species that has tweaked the sensitivities of opsin proteins towards different wavelengths of light. We provide an extensive resource of wavelength sensitivities and mutations that have diverged light sensitivity in many vertebrate species and predict how these mutations were accumulated in each lineage based on parsimony. We suggest possible natural and sexual selection mechanisms underlying these spectral differences. Understanding how molecular changes allow for functional adaptation of animals to different environments is a major goal in the field, and therefore identifying mutations affecting vision and their relationship to photic selection pressures is imperative. The goal of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of our current understanding of opsin evolution in vertebrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joanna F D Hagen
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA
| | - Natalie S Roberts
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA
| | - Robert J Johnston
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA.
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Hagen JFD, Mendes CC, Booth SR, Figueras Jimenez J, Tanaka KM, Franke FA, Baudouin-Gonzalez L, Ridgway AM, Arif S, Nunes MDS, McGregor AP. Unraveling the Genetic Basis for the Rapid Diversification of Male Genitalia between Drosophila Species. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:437-448. [PMID: 32931587 PMCID: PMC7826188 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msaa232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
In the last 240,000 years, males of the Drosophila simulans species clade have evolved striking differences in the morphology of their epandrial posterior lobes and claspers (surstyli). These appendages are used for grasping the female during mating and so their divergence is most likely driven by sexual selection. Mapping studies indicate a highly polygenic and generally additive genetic basis for these morphological differences. However, we have limited understanding of the gene regulatory networks that control the development of genital structures and how they evolved to result in this rapid phenotypic diversification. Here, we used new D. simulans/D. mauritiana introgression lines on chromosome arm 3L to generate higher resolution maps of posterior lobe and clasper differences between these species. We then carried out RNA-seq on the developing genitalia of both species to identify the expressed genes and those that are differentially expressed between the two species. This allowed us to test the function of expressed positional candidates during genital development in D. melanogaster. We identified several new genes involved in the development and possibly the evolution of these genital structures, including the transcription factors Hairy and Grunge. Furthermore, we discovered that during clasper development Hairy negatively regulates tartan (trn), a gene known to contribute to divergence in clasper morphology. Taken together, our results provide new insights into the regulation of genital development and how this has evolved between species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joanna F D Hagen
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Cláudia C Mendes
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Shamma R Booth
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Javier Figueras Jimenez
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Kentaro M Tanaka
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Franziska A Franke
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Luis Baudouin-Gonzalez
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Amber M Ridgway
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Saad Arif
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom.,Centre for Functional Genomics, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Maria D S Nunes
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom.,Centre for Functional Genomics, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Alistair P McGregor
- Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom.,Centre for Functional Genomics, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
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