How exaptations facilitated photosensory evolution: Seeing the light by accident.
Bioessays
; 39(7)2017 07.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28570771
Exaptations are adaptations that have undergone a major change in function. By recruiting genes from sources originally unrelated to vision, exaptation has allowed for sudden and critical photosensory innovations, such as lenses, photopigments, and photoreceptors. Here we review new or neglected findings, with an emphasis on unicellular eukaryotes (protists), to illustrate how exaptation has shaped photoreception across the tree of life. Protist phylogeny attests to multiple origins of photoreception, as well as the extreme creativity of evolution. By appropriating genes and even entire organelles from foreign organisms via lateral gene transfer and endosymbiosis, protists have cobbled photoreceptors and eyespots from a diverse set of ingredients. While refinement through natural selection is paramount, exaptation helps illustrate how novelties arise in the first place, and is now shedding light on the origins of photoreception itself.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Células Fotorreceptoras
/
Visión Ocular
Límite:
Animals
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Bioessays
Asunto de la revista:
BIOLOGIA
/
BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR
Año:
2017
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos