Abstract
New World primates feature a complex colour vision system. Most species have polymorphic colour vision where males have a dichromatic colour perception and females can be either dichromatic or trichromatic. The adaptive value of high allelic diversity of opsins, a light sensitive protein, found in primates’ eyes remains unknown. Studies revealing the allelic diversity are important as they shed light on our understanding of the adaptive value of differences in the colouration of species and their ecologies. Here we investigate the allelic types found in Pitheciidae, an understudied New World primate family, revealing the diversity of medium/long wavelength sensitive opsins both in cryptic and conspicuous species of this primate family. We found five alleles in Cacajao, six in Callicebinae (i.e. Plecturocebus, Cheracebus, and Callicebus), four in Chiropotes, and three in Pithecia, some of them reported for the first time. Both cryptic and conspicuous species in this group presented high allelic diversity.
Highlights
New World primates feature a complex colour vision system
While most terrestrial mammals possess dichromatic colour perception, similar to a red-green colour blind human, primates may exhibit: (1) monochromatic colour vision, which occurs in several nocturnal species; (2) routine dichromatic colour vision in tarsiers and some lemur species; (3) routine trichromatic colour vision, mostly in Old World primates; and (4) polymorphic colour vision in most New World primates where males are obligatory dichromats, whereas females can have either dichromatic or trichromatic colour vision systems[1,2,3,4,5]
We found C. ayresi with the alleles AFA (532 λmaxnm), AYT (555 λmaxnm) and SYT (560 λmaxnm); C. hosomi with the alleles AFA, AFT (545 λmaxnm) and SYT; C. melanocephalus with AFT, AYT and SYT
Summary
New World primates feature a complex colour vision system. Most species have polymorphic colour vision where males have a dichromatic colour perception and females can be either dichromatic or trichromatic. Strepsirrhine primate species have a potential polymorphic colour vision, this primate suborder lacks behavioural studies confirming a polymorphic colour vision as possessed by New World primates[6, 7] This variation in colour vision in New World primates arises from a single locus for the gene coding the medium-long (M/L) wavelength sensitive opsin on the X chromosome[8, 9]; that is, males are obligatory dichromats as they are hemizygotes, and females can be either dichromats (i.e. homozygotes) or trichromats (i.e. heterozygotes)[10]. Was recently reported as being highly polymorphic with a six functional alleles for the medium-long wavelength sensitive opsin This makes the species an interesting subject to test the importance of reddish displays on the evolution of colour vision. To date, nothing is known about the colour vision in this species and this is one of the objectives of the present study
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