bat eyes have ultraviolet-sensitive cone photoreceptors蝙蝠的眼睛有色觉过程锥体光感受器.pdfVIP

Bat Eyes Have Ultraviolet-Sensitive Cone Photoreceptors ¨ 1 ¨ 1 1 2 3 Brigitte Muller *, Martin Glosmann , Leo Peichl , Gabriel C. Knop , Cornelia Hagemann , Josef ¨ 2 Ammermuller 1 Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, 2 Department of Neurobiology, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany, 3 Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt/Main, Germany Abstract 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 ,400 nm) sensitivity, and corneal electroretinogram recordings reveal an elevated sensitivity to UV light which is mediated by an S cone visual pigment. Therefore bats have retained the ancestral UV tuning of the S cone pigment. We conclude that bats have the prerequisite for daylight vision, dichromatic colour