title: Evolution of the vertebrate eye: opsins, photoreceptors, retina and eye cup.
abstract: Charles Darwin appreciated the conceptual difficulty in accepting that an organ as wonderful as the vertebrate eye could have evolved through natural selection. He reasoned that if appropriate gradations could be found that were useful to the animal and were inherited, then the apparent difficulty would be overcome. Here, we review a wide range of findings that capture glimpses of the gradations that appear to have occurred during eye evolution, and provide a scenario for the unseen steps that have led to the emergence of the vertebrate eye.
authors.affiliation: Australian National University, Division of Neuroscience, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, Garran Road, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2600, Australia. Trevor.Lamb@anu.edu.au
authors.forename: Trevor D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Lamb
authors.forename: Shaun P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Collin
authors.forename: Edward N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Pugh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D006801:Humans; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D020419:Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D012160:Retina / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D017299:Rod Opsins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D017299:Rod Opsins