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Environmental plasticity in opsin expression due to light and thyroid hormone in adult and developing Astatotilapia burtoni

  • ADVANCES IN CICHLID RESEARCH V
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Abstract

Cichlid fishes show remarkable variation in visual sensitivities through differential expression of seven cone opsin genes. Many species undergo spectral sensitivity shifts from shorter to longer wavelengths as they develop from larvae to adults. However, while some species retain larval-like short wavelength sensitivities, others show adult-like longer wavelength sensitivities throughout life. The riverine cichlid, Astatotilapia burtoni, shows a single cone progression from ultraviolet to violet to blue sensitivity, while their long wavelength double cones maintain green and red sensitivities throughout life. To identify mechanisms that regulate these sensitivities, we asked whether thyroid hormone (TH) or light environment can drive shifts. We find that developmental treatment with TH can speed shifts to longer wavelength sensitivity, but only in single cones. TH inhibition can short wavelength shift adult opsin expression. Exposure to light regimes containing UV wavelengths induce short wavelength shifts in single cones early in development. None of the treatments produces double cone shifts or significant expression of the shortest wavelength double cone opsin, rh2b, although we detect no cis-regulatory variation. This suggests that while single cones show both TH and light plasticity, A. burtoni double cones have lost this plasticity, perhaps through changes in trans-acting opsin regulation.

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Quantitative PCR data are given in Supplementary Tables S2–S5.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Juntti and Kocher labs for help with fish care and breeding. We also thank Douglas Forrest for encouraging our studies of thyroid hormone responses. Thanks also to two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and improvements.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH R01EY024639B (KC and SJ) and the National Science Foundation (IOS-1825723 (SJ) and IOS-0841270 (KC) and Human Frontiers in Science Program (RGY0079; SJ).

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Melissa M. Schreiner, Miranda R. Yourick, Scott A. Juntti & Karen L. Carleton

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  1. Melissa M. Schreiner
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This study was conceived by all authors. MS and MY performed data collection and analysis. SJ and KC contributed to the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Karen L. Carleton.

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This work has been completed under the approval of the University of Maryland’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (R-AUG-18-41; R-FEB-21-06).

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Guest Editors: S. Koblmüller, R. C. Albertson, M. J. Genner, K. M. Sefc & T. Takahashi / Advances in Cichlid Research V: Behavior, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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Schreiner, M.M., Yourick, M.R., Juntti, S.A. et al. Environmental plasticity in opsin expression due to light and thyroid hormone in adult and developing Astatotilapia burtoni. Hydrobiologia 850, 2315–2329 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-04957-y

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