title: Ciliary photoreceptors with a vertebrate-type opsin in an invertebrate brain.
abstract: For vision, insect and vertebrate eyes use rhabdomeric and ciliary photoreceptor cells, respectively. These cells show distinct architecture and transduce the light signal by different phototransductory cascades. In the marine rag-worm Platynereis, we find both cell types: rhabdomeric photoreceptor cells in the eyes and ciliary photoreceptor cells in the brain. The latter use a photopigment closely related to vertebrate rod and cone opsins. Comparative analysis indicates that both types of photoreceptors, with distinct opsins, coexisted in Urbilateria, the last common ancestor of insects and vertebrates, and sheds new light on vertebrate eye evolution.
authors.affiliation: Developmental Biology Department, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69012 Heidelberg, Germany. detlev.arendt@embl.de
authors.forename: Detlev
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Arendt
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tessmar-Raible
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Snyman
authors.forename: Adriaan W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Dorresteijn
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wittbrodt
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology; D002923:Cilia / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D005123:Eye / Q000166:cytology; D020440:Gene Duplication; D005801:Genes, Homeobox; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017956:Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000166:cytology; D020419:Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology; D010802:Phylogeny; D011077:Polychaeta / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology* / Q000235:genetics*; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000166:cytology; D017299:Rod Opsins / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017299:Rod Opsins