This blog is devoted to BIOL 6988, a graduate level seminar in the biological sciences at Youngstown State University. While targeted towards graduate students, BIOL 6988 actively incorporates undergraduate participants in their scholastic endeavors in the biological sciences. This blog is intended as a educational tool not just for YSU students and faculty, but for anyone who wishes to contribute to an active-learning environment.
Dr. Walker will be showing Your Inner Monkey. Unfortunately, I will be out of town on business. I wish all of you a peaceful and relaxing Spring Break. BTW, it's Joe Mack's turn to start the conversation.
So, this week we were treated to the video Your Inner Monkey, which was quite fascinating. The evolutionary similarities is something that is always taught to us as biology majors, but being able to see it laid out in a piece by piece system like the video had was quite refreshing and really helped to drive home how closely related we are to our other primates.
The question I have for the blog readers is this: in the video it talked about Opsin 1, 2, and 3 being the cause of our rich color vision while those organisms with only 1 and 2 having a red-green colorblindness. What, ultimately, do you think was the driving factor? In the video it was mentioned that it was possibly to improve recognition of foods/predators, but what other possibilities do you "see" for the evolutionary selection of this mutation? (Sorry for the pun, I'll "see" myself out.)
I would imagine there were a number a reasons for the evolutionary pressure that lead to the progression out of red-green color blindness and into trichromatic vision. As the video mentioned, the third opsin provided the ability to distinguish ripe fruit for eating from the surrounding material, and also to detect more nutritious foliage from others. This ability would provide for a higher degree of fitness and likelihood of survival, which increased the chances of the third opsin gene being passed on. Another theory that I have read is that the ability to see "red" played a factor in mating, in that the color of the skin or flushing was an indicator of sexual maturity and this provided a great indication of breeding success, which in turn produced more offspring that also would have to ability to see in such a manner. This vision also made it more possible to live in a less-covered existence and venture more into open space with safety, which could have resulted in less ecological competition, or different food sources, etc, and more success. While the video suggested that the third opsin aroused via gene duplication, I have to wonder the evolution behind tetrachromatic vision. In animals that also have the ability to perceive UV light like certain fish and non-mammals, what pressures were exerted that yielded this result? Do these pressures exist in trichromatic-visioned animals today? Do you think a fourth photopigment opsin is "visible" in the future for humans??
I know that many species of insects utilize UV light to find the best flowers as a food source. Plants themselves have adapted specific patterns visible only in the UV spectrum as a sort of landing strip for their winged pollinators. If something as simple as a slightly-modified duplication resulted in our third opsin, I see no reason why it couldn't happen again in the distance future. In fact, the video mentioned the researchers who gave monkeys a third opsin. Perhaps at some point that research will lead to a genetic modification for people that allows them to see a wider spectrum of light.
Going off of what Jillian said, that would be crazy if there was a fourth photopigment opsin. Is there a way we can activate "if there is one" a fourth just like we were able to activate the third opsin in the test monkey. He was able to see the red and green colors once it was turned on.
But going off of what the discussion leader said, I believe anytime a mutation or a change happens positively or negatively can affect the population. For this instance, the third opsin was turned on and since that was beneficial this third opsin was then passed down from generation to generation. Like the movie said, this could have benefited finding ripe fruit or just being able to find food in the first place.
I also read about the ability to see red playing a role in the organism's fitness, thus allowing the third opsin gene to be passed to further generations. In female baboons and chimps, during ovulation the skin of their sexual organs will turn red. These primates now use their trichromatic vision in sexual reproduction via intra-specific signaling. Although having trichromatic vision is now normal for these organisms, the earliest of them having the opsin 3 gene would've had a far greater reproduction rate compared to those with dichromatic vision.
I found this as well while reading about the third opsin. This is probably how the gene was able to continue to be more common and become the norm. Not only can they thrive better by seeing food and their environment better but being more sexually appealing causes that individual with the third opsin to continually be the choice to reproduce with and passing the third opsin on more and more
The old World primates depended on the presence of two seperate X-linked Opsin gene that encode MW and LW with λ max values of approximately 530 and 560 nm respectively.The close homology between these two genes indicate that they represent a relatively recent duplication from a single ancestral gene and the presence of the duplication in old world primates examined to date.A recent analysis of the coding sequence of these two genes would suggest that evolution of the spectral shift between the visual pigment encoded by these two genes occurred subsequent to duplication and did not draw on different allelic forms of the polymorphc gene now present in new World primates.
I have read in previous studies that having color vision was a possible trait to be able to sense emotions or health on the skin of others. They said there are two dimensions you can see in color...the veins on your wrist (about oxygenation which is a yellow blue axis) and if you look at your palm, squeeze it and let go...thats a red green axis. "Two of the specialized glasses are for medicine. There’s the oxygenation isolator — a vein finder. It’s good for any case where you are interested in just looking at variations in oxygenation, like phlebotomy or to get a line or IV in. The second one kills the ability to see oxygenation and amplifies [the ability to see] whether blood is pooling. You wouldn’t see veins at all, but when you squeeze your fingers, you can see where blood is and isn’t. It [has applications in] dermatology." I also found out that,in some countries, you can't go to medical school if you are colorblind because some doctors "toolkits" mention acute pallor of skin.
I thought it was interesting to find out and look at it from this point of view.
I thought it was interesting that the researcher said that once the gene was inserted the monkey had immediate color vision and was able to distinguish between colors that weren't previously discernible. He then made the suggestion that all it took was one mutation for a robust color vision. I think that statement disregards the layers of neural evolution that likely also happened to allow for this new sensory input. The laboratory monkey while missing the genetic code for the cone still had gone through levels of evolution in other areas of the visual cortex. I don't think it was a simple plug-and-play as he made it seem.
So, this week we were treated to the video Your Inner Monkey, which was quite fascinating. The evolutionary similarities is something that is always taught to us as biology majors, but being able to see it laid out in a piece by piece system like the video had was quite refreshing and really helped to drive home how closely related we are to our other primates.
ReplyDeleteThe question I have for the blog readers is this: in the video it talked about Opsin 1, 2, and 3 being the cause of our rich color vision while those organisms with only 1 and 2 having a red-green colorblindness. What, ultimately, do you think was the driving factor? In the video it was mentioned that it was possibly to improve recognition of foods/predators, but what other possibilities do you "see" for the evolutionary selection of this mutation? (Sorry for the pun, I'll "see" myself out.)
I would imagine there were a number a reasons for the evolutionary pressure that lead to the progression out of red-green color blindness and into trichromatic vision. As the video mentioned, the third opsin provided the ability to distinguish ripe fruit for eating from the surrounding material, and also to detect more nutritious foliage from others. This ability would provide for a higher degree of fitness and likelihood of survival, which increased the chances of the third opsin gene being passed on. Another theory that I have read is that the ability to see "red" played a factor in mating, in that the color of the skin or flushing was an indicator of sexual maturity and this provided a great indication of breeding success, which in turn produced more offspring that also would have to ability to see in such a manner. This vision also made it more possible to live in a less-covered existence and venture more into open space with safety, which could have resulted in less ecological competition, or different food sources, etc, and more success.
ReplyDeleteWhile the video suggested that the third opsin aroused via gene duplication, I have to wonder the evolution behind tetrachromatic vision. In animals that also have the ability to perceive UV light like certain fish and non-mammals, what pressures were exerted that yielded this result? Do these pressures exist in trichromatic-visioned animals today? Do you think a fourth photopigment opsin is "visible" in the future for humans??
I know that many species of insects utilize UV light to find the best flowers as a food source. Plants themselves have adapted specific patterns visible only in the UV spectrum as a sort of landing strip for their winged pollinators. If something as simple as a slightly-modified duplication resulted in our third opsin, I see no reason why it couldn't happen again in the distance future. In fact, the video mentioned the researchers who gave monkeys a third opsin. Perhaps at some point that research will lead to a genetic modification for people that allows them to see a wider spectrum of light.
ReplyDeleteGoing off of what Jillian said, that would be crazy if there was a fourth photopigment opsin. Is there a way we can activate "if there is one" a fourth just like we were able to activate the third opsin in the test monkey. He was able to see the red and green colors once it was turned on.
ReplyDeleteBut going off of what the discussion leader said, I believe anytime a mutation or a change happens positively or negatively can affect the population. For this instance, the third opsin was turned on and since that was beneficial this third opsin was then passed down from generation to generation. Like the movie said, this could have benefited finding ripe fruit or just being able to find food in the first place.
I also read about the ability to see red playing a role in the organism's fitness, thus allowing the third opsin gene to be passed to further generations. In female baboons and chimps, during ovulation the skin of their sexual organs will turn red. These primates now use their trichromatic vision in sexual reproduction via intra-specific signaling. Although having trichromatic vision is now normal for these organisms, the earliest of them having the opsin 3 gene would've had a far greater reproduction rate compared to those with dichromatic vision.
ReplyDeleteI found this as well while reading about the third opsin. This is probably how the gene was able to continue to be more common and become the norm. Not only can they thrive better by seeing food and their environment better but being more sexually appealing causes that individual with the third opsin to continually be the choice to reproduce with and passing the third opsin on more and more
ReplyDeleteThe old World primates depended on the presence of two seperate X-linked Opsin gene that encode MW and LW with λ max values of approximately 530 and 560 nm respectively.The close homology between these two genes indicate that they represent a relatively recent duplication from a single ancestral gene and the presence of the duplication in old world primates examined to date.A recent analysis of the coding sequence of these two genes would suggest that evolution of the spectral shift between the visual pigment encoded by these two genes occurred subsequent to duplication and did not draw on different allelic forms of the polymorphc gene now present in new World primates.
ReplyDeleteI have read in previous studies that having color vision was a possible trait to be able to sense emotions or health on the skin of others. They said there are two dimensions you can see in color...the veins on your wrist (about oxygenation which is a yellow blue axis) and if you look at your palm, squeeze it and let go...thats a red green axis.
ReplyDelete"Two of the specialized glasses are for medicine. There’s the oxygenation isolator — a vein finder. It’s good for any case where you are interested in just looking at variations in oxygenation, like phlebotomy or to get a line or IV in. The second one kills the ability to see oxygenation and amplifies [the ability to see] whether blood is pooling. You wouldn’t see veins at all, but when you squeeze your fingers, you can see where blood is and isn’t. It [has applications in] dermatology."
I also found out that,in some countries, you can't go to medical school if you are colorblind because some doctors "toolkits" mention acute pallor of skin.
I thought it was interesting to find out and look at it from this point of view.
I thought it was interesting that the researcher said that once the gene was inserted the monkey had immediate color vision and was able to distinguish between colors that weren't previously discernible. He then made the suggestion that all it took was one mutation for a robust color vision. I think that statement disregards the layers of neural evolution that likely also happened to allow for this new sensory input. The laboratory monkey while missing the genetic code for the cone still had gone through levels of evolution in other areas of the visual cortex. I don't think it was a simple plug-and-play as he made it seem.
ReplyDelete