Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T06:18:41.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Photoreceptor spectral absorbance in larval and adult winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Barbara I. Evans ,
Ferenc I. Hárosi  and
Russell D. Fernald
Barbara I. Evans
Affiliation:
Neuroscience Program and Psychology Department, Stanford University, Stanford
Ferenc I. Hárosi
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Sensory Physiology, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole
Russell D. Fernald
Affiliation:
Neuroscience Program and Psychology Department, Stanford University, Stanford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The habitat occupied by larval winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus) differs considerably in light regime from that of the adult. To understand how the visual system has adapted to such changes, photoreceptor spectral absorbance was measured microspectrophotometrically in premetamorphic and postmetamorphic specimens of winter flounder. Before metamorphosis, larval flounder retinas contain only one kind of photoreceptor which is morphologically cone-like with peak absorbance at 519 nm. After metamorphosis, the adult retina has three types of photoreceptors: single cones, double cones, and rods. The visual pigment in single cones has a peak absorbance at λmax = 457 nm, the double cones at λmax = 531 and 547 nm, and the rod photoreceptors at λmax = 506 nm. Double cones were morphologically identical, but the two members contained either different (531/547 nm) or identical pigments (531/531 nm). The latter type were found only in the dorsal retina. The measured spectral half-bandwidths (HBW) were typical of visual pigments with chromophores derived from vitamin A1 with the possible exception of the long-wavelength absorbing pigment in double cones which appeared slightly broader. Because the premetamorphic pigment absorbance has a different λmax than those of the postmetamorphic pigments, different opsin genes must be expressed before and after metamorphosis.

Keywords

RetinaMetamorphosisMicrospectrophotometryRodsCones
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 10 , Issue 6 , November 1993 , pp. 1065 - 1071
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, D.M. & Munz, F.W. (1983). Visual pigment mixtures and sco-topic spectral sensitivity in rainbow trout. Environmental Biology of Fishes 8, 185–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, S.N. & Lythgoe, J.N. (1990). The visual pigment basis for cone polymorphism in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata. Vision Research 30, 225–233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beatty, D.D. (1975). Visual pigments of the American eel Anguilla ros-trata. Vision Research 15, 771–776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bridges, C.D.B. (1967). Spectroscopic properties of porphyropsins. Vision Research 7, 349–369.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Browman, H.I. & Hawrvshyn, C.W. (1992). Thyroxine induces a pre-cocial loss of ultraviolet photosensitivity in rainbow trout (Onco-rhynchus mykiss, Teleostei). Vision Research 32, 2303–2312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crescitelli, F. (1991). Adaptations of visual pigments to the photic environments of the deep sea. Journal of Experimental Zoology (Suppl.) 5, 66–75.Google Scholar
Dartnall, H.J.A. (1975). Assessing the fitness of visual pigments for their photic environments. In Vision in Fishes, ed. ALI, M.A., pp. 543–563. London: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EngströM, K. & Ahlbert, I.-B. (1963). Cone types and cone arrangement in the retina of some flatfishes. Acta Zoologica 44, 119–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, B.I. & Fernald, R.D. (1993). Retinal transformation at metamorphosis in the winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus). Visual Neuroscience 10, 1055–1064.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, B.I. & Fernald, R.D. (1990). Metamorphosis and fish vision. Journal of Neurobiology 21(7), 1037–1052.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fernald, R.D. & Leibman, P.A. (1980). Visual receptor pigments in the African cichlid fish, Haplochromis burtoni. Vision Research 20, 857–864.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forster, R.P. & Taggart, J.V. (1950). Use of isolated renal tubules for the examination of metabolic processes associated with active cellular transport. Journal of Cellular Comparative Physiology 36, 251–270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fujimoto, M., Arimoto, T., Morishita, F. & Naitoh, T. (1991). The background adaptation of the flatfish, Paralichthys olivaceus. Physiology and Behavior 50, 185–188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldsmith, T.H. (1990). Optimization, constraint, and history in the evolution of eyes. Quarterly Review of Biology 65 (3), 281–322.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hárosi, F.I. & Macnichol, E.F. Jr, (1974). Dichroic microspectro-photometer: A computer-assisted, rapid, wavelength-scanning photometer for measuring linear dichroism in single cells. Journal of the Optical Society of America 64, 903–918.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hárosi, F.I. (1975 a). Linear dichroism of rods and cones. In Vision in Fishes, ed. ALI, M.A., pp. 55–65. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
H´arosi, F.I. (1975 b). Absorption spectra and linear dichroism of some amphibian photoreceptors. Journal of General Physiology 66, 357–382.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hárosi, F.I. (1982). Recent results from single-cell microspectrophotometry: Cone pigments in frog, fish, and monkey. Color Research and Applications 7, 135–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hárosi, F.I. (1987). Cynomolgus and rhesus monkey visual pigments: Application of Fourier transform smoothing and statistical techniques to the determination of spectral parameters. Journal of General Physiology 89, 717–743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heinermann, P.H. & ALI, M.A. (1989). The photic environment and scotopic visual pigments of the creek chub, Semotilus atromacula-tus and white sucker, Catostomus commersoni. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 164, 707–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jerlov, N.G. (1968). Optical Oceanography. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Johnson, R.L., Grant, K.B., Zankel, T.C., Boehm, M.F., Merbs, S.L., Nathans, J. & Nakanishi, K. (1993). Cloning and expression of goldfish opsin sequences. Biochemistry 32, 208–214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein-MacPhee, G. (1978). Synopsis of biological data for the winter flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus (Walbaum). NOAA Technical Report NMFS Circular 414, 43 pp.Google Scholar
Levine, J.S. & MacNichol, E.F. Jr, (1979). Visual pigments in teleost fishes: Effects of habitat, microhabitat, and behavior on visual system evolution. Sensory Processes 3, 95–131.Google ScholarPubMed
Levine, J.S. & MacNichol, E.F. Jr, (1982). Color vision in fishes. Scientific American 246, 140–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loew, E.R. & Lythgoe, J.N. (1978). The ecology of cone pigments in teleost fishes. Vision Research 18, 715–722.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lythgoe, J.N. (1972). The adaptation of visual pigments to the photic environment. In Handbook of Sensory Physiology Vol. VII/l, ed. Dartnall, J.H.A., pp. 566–603. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Lythgoe, J.N. (1979). The Ecology of Vision. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Mainland, D., Herrera, L. & Sutcliffe, M.I. (1956). Statistical Tables for Use with Binomial Samples. New York: Department of Medical Statistics, New York University College of Medicine.Google Scholar
McCracken, F.D. (1963). Seasonal movements of the winter flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus (Walbaum), on the Atlantic coast. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 20 (2), 551–586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFall-Ngai, M.J. (1990). Crypsis in the pelagic environment. American Zoologist 30, 175–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munz, F.W. & McFarland, W.N. (1977). Evolutionary adaptations of fishes to the photic environment. In Handbook of Sensory Physiology, Vol. VII /5, ed. Crescitelli, F., pp. 193–274. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Nathans, J., Merbs, S.L., Sung, C.-H., Weitz, C.J. & Wang, Y. (1992). Molecular genetics of human visual pigments. Annual Review of Genetics 26, 403–424.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neitz, M., Neitz, J. & Jacobs, G.H. (1991). Spectral tuning of pigments underlying red-green color vision. Science 252, 971–974.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Novales-Flamarique, I., Hendry, A. & Hawryshyn, C.W. (1992). The photic environment of a salmonid nursery lake. Journal of Experimental Biology 169, 121–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandy, J.M. & Blaxter, J.H.S. (1980). A study of retinal development in larval herring and sole. Journal of the Marine Biological Association (U.K.) 60, 59–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shand, J., Partridge, J.C., Archer, S.N., Potts, G.W. & Lythgoe, J.N. (1988). Spectral absorbance changes in the violet/blue sensitive cones of the juvenile pollack, Pollachius pollachius. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 163, 699–703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, B., Steele, D.H. & Tyler, A.V. (1973). Intertidal feeding of winter flounders (Pseudopleuronectes americanus) in the Bay of Fundy. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 30, 1374–1378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yokoyama, R. & Yokoyama, S. (1990). Convergent evolution of the red- and green-like visual pigment genes in fish, Astyanaxfasciatus, and human. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A. 87, 9315–9318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar