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Ultraviolet photopigment sensitivity and ocular media transmittance in gulls, with an evolutionary perspective

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Abstract

Gulls (Laridae excluding Sternidae) appear to be the only shorebirds (Charadriiformes) that have a short wavelength sensitive type 1 (SWS1) cone pigment opsin tuned to ultraviolet (UV) instead of violet. However, the apparent UV-sensitivity has only been inferred indirectly, via the interpretation that the presence of cysteine at the key amino acid position 90 in the SWS1 opsin confers UV sensitivity. Unless the cornea and the lens efficiently transmit UV to the retina, gulls might in effect be similar to violet-sensitive birds in spectral sensitivity even if they have an ultraviolet sensitive (UVS) SWS1 visual pigment. We report that the spectral transmission of the cornea and lens of great black-backed Larus marinus and herring gulls L. argentatus allow UV-sensitivity, having a λT0.5 value, 344 nm, similar to the ocular media of UV sensitive birds. By molecular sequencing of the second α-helical transmembrane region of the SWS1 opsin gene we could also infer that 15 herring gulls and 16 yellow-legged gulls L. michahellis, all base-pair identical, are genetically UV-sensitive.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Martina Andersson and Lasse Johansson at Uppsala City Council for the great black-backed and herring gull samples, and Benedicto González and Miguel González-Vélez at LOCUS AVIS SL Company as well as Marta Vila Taboada for the yellow-legged gull samples. This study was financially supported by The Swedish Research Council, VR (OH), The Swedish Research Council Formas (AÖ) and Stiftelsen för Zoologisk Forskning (sequencing). This study complies with the “Principles of animal care", publication No. 86–23, revised 1985 of the National Institute of Health, and also with current Swedish law.

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  1. Olle Håstad

    Present address: Department of Evolutionary Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18A, 752 36, Uppsala, Sweden

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UG, UK

    Olle Håstad & Julian C. Partridge

  2. Department of Animal Ecology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 752 36, Uppsala, Sweden

    Anders Ödeen

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  1. Olle Håstad
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  2. Julian C. Partridge
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  3. Anders Ödeen
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Correspondence to Olle Håstad.

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Håstad, O., Partridge, J.C. & Ödeen, A. Ultraviolet photopigment sensitivity and ocular media transmittance in gulls, with an evolutionary perspective. J Comp Physiol A 195, 585–590 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-009-0433-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-009-0433-8

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