Journal
EVOLUTION
Volume 69, Issue 2, Pages 341-356Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/evo.12572
Keywords
Ancestral reconstructions; convergent evolution; correlated evolution; historical contingency; opsins; visual pigment in vitro expression
Categories
Funding
- National Institute of Health [NRSA 1F31EY020105]
- National Science Foundation [DEB 1209876]
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
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Distantly related clades that occupy similar environments may differ due to the lasting imprint of their ancestorshistorical contingency. The New World warblers (Parulidae) and Old World warblers (Phylloscopidae) are ecologically similar clades that differ strikingly in plumage coloration. We studied genetic and functional evolution of the short-wavelength-sensitive visual pigments (SWS2 and SWS1) to ask if altered color perception could contribute to the plumage color differences between clades. We show SWS2 is short-wavelength shifted in birds that occupy open environments, such as finches, compared to those in closed environments, including warblers. Phylogenetic reconstructions indicate New World warblers were derived from a finch-like form that colonized from the Old World 15-20 Ma. During this process, the SWS2 gene accumulated six substitutions in branches leading to New World warblers, inviting the hypothesis that passage through a finch-like ancestor resulted in SWS2 evolution. In fact, we show spectral tuning remained similar across warblers as well as the finch ancestor. Results reject the hypothesis of historical contingency based on opsin spectral tuning, but point to evolution of other aspects of visual pigment function. Using the approach outlined here, historical contingency becomes a generally testable theory in systems where genotype and phenotype can be connected.
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