Jewel beetles evolve to see new colors by duplicating their genes
New research probes the vibrant vision and complex evolutionary history
of jewel beetles

Date:
March 10, 2023
Source:
University of Minnesota
Summary:
Jewel beetles are striking insects, easily recognized by their
vivid colors and metallic sheen. New research investigated the
complex evolutionary history of jewel beetles' vision.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Jewel beetles are striking insects, easily recognized by their vivid
colors and metallic sheen. Possessing large, well-developed eyes,
jewel beetles use vision and color for a range of different behaviors, including finding mates and host plants.


========================================================================== Color vision in insects differs from our own. Special genes allow many
insects to see ultraviolet (UV) light as well as blue and green. New
research led by Camilla Sharkey, a postdoctoral associate at the
Wardill Lab in the College of Biological Sciences, investigated the
complex evolutionary history of jewel beetles' vision. The research
team included Jorge Blanco, formerly with the Wardill Lab and now at
University of Maryland, Nathan Lord of Louisiana State University,
and Trevor Wardill, assistant professor at CBS.

Previous research by Dr. Sharkey has shown that before the evolution
of modern beetles, their ancestors lost the ability to see blue light
around 300 million years ago. This may have been the result of the beetle ancestor becoming nocturnal or living in low-light conditions. Later,
as beetles diversified, they evolved duplicates of the ancestral genes
that allow them to see the UV and green spectrum. These duplicate genes
could further evolve, making new parts of the color spectrum visible
and allowing more complicated and diverse color signals to be seen.

Researchers wanted to know if the duplicate genes have evolved,
allowing beetles to see colors that their ancestors could not. Since
jewel beetles are difficult to keep in a lab, they copied the genes and inserted them into fruit flies, replacing their normal visual genes. Using electrophysiology, they tested the color sensitivity each gene produced
in the flies. They then looked for genetic changes that might underlie
the shifts in color sensitivity using 3D protein modeling. The study
found that:
* Jewel beetles have evolved additional blue and orange sensitivity by
duplicating and evolving their UV and green visual genes.

* This enables complex tetra-chromatic color sensitivity to UV,
blue, green
and orange wavelengths of light, similar to the color sensitivity
of colorful birds.

* Newly evolved genetic changes related to color detection were
not found
to shift sensitivities as predicted when visual genes were modified
and retested.

All jewel beetle species studied so far have the four differing gene types
that were isolated in the research, suggesting that all jewel beetles
probably have complex color sensitivity. According to Sharkey, "the next
step is to determine if specific types of color vision can be predicted
from genes and how color vision is used by insects to better manage pest
and pollinator insects, thus improving crop production." Researchers also
hope to understand the molecular basis of jewel beetle color sensitivity,
which would provide a basis for predicting insect color sensitivity from
the gene sequence.

Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation and The University
of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences.

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Plants_&_Animals
# Evolutionary_Biology # Insects_(including_Butterflies)
# Genetics # Developmental_Biology
o Fossils_&_Ruins
# Evolution # Charles_Darwin # Origin_of_Life #
Human_Evolution
* RELATED_TERMS
o Beetle o Firefly o Red-cockaded_Woodpecker o
Eye o Seed_predation o Evolutionary_psychology o
Butterflies,_skippers_and_moths o Algal_bloom

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Minnesota. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Jewel_beetle_carapaces ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Camilla R Sharkey, Jorge Blanco, Nathan P Lord, Trevor J
Wardill. Jewel
Beetle Opsin Duplication and Divergence Is the Mechanism for Diverse
Spectral Sensitivities. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2023; 40
(2) DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msad023 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230310123524.htm

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