UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Developmental dynamics of cone photoreceptors in the eel

Cottrill, PB; Davies, WL; Semo, M; Bowmaker, JK; Hunt, DM; Jeffery, G; (2009) Developmental dynamics of cone photoreceptors in the eel. BMC DEV BIOL , 9 , Article 71. 10.1186/1471-213X-9-71. Green open access

[thumbnail of 1471-213X-9-71.pdf]
Preview
PDF
1471-213X-9-71.pdf

Download (598kB)

Abstract

Background: Many fish alter their expressed visual pigments during development. The number of retinal opsins expressed and their type is normally related to the environment in which they live. Eels are known to change the expression of their rod opsins as they mature, but might they also change the expression of their cone opsins?Results: The Rh2 and Sws2 opsin sequences from the European Eel were isolated, sequenced and expressed in vitro for an accurate measurement of their lambda(max) values. In situ hybridisation revealed that glass eels express only rh2 opsin in their cone photoreceptors, while larger yellow eels continue to express rh2 opsin in the majority of their cones, but also have <5% of cones which express sws2 opsin. Silver eels showed the same expression pattern as the larger yellow eels. This observation was confirmed by qPCR (quantitative polymerase chain reaction).Conclusions: Larger yellow and silver European eels express two different cone opsins, rh2 and sws2. This work demonstrates that only the Rh2 cone opsin is present in younger fish (smaller yellow and glass), the sws2 opsin being expressed additionally only by older fish and only in <5% of cone cells.

Type: Article
Title: Developmental dynamics of cone photoreceptors in the eel
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1186/1471-213X-9-71
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-213X-9-71
Language: English
Additional information: © 2009 Cottrill et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: ANGUILLA-ANGUILLA L, EUROPEAN EEL, VISUAL PIGMENT, RETINAL DEVELOPMENT, SEXUAL-MATURATION, GENE-EXPRESSION, OPSIN, METAMORPHOSIS, SUBSTITUTION, RECEPTOR
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Institute of Ophthalmology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/65305
Downloads since deposit
131Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item