Abstract
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-7 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
| Volume | 282 |
| Issue number | 1808 |
| Early online date | 20 May 2015 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2015 |
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Three spectrally distinct photoreceptors in diurnal and nocturnal Australian ants. / Ogawa, Yuri; Falkowski, Marcin; Narendra, A.; Zeil, J.; Hemmi, Jan.
In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 282, No. 1808, 06.2015, p. 1-7.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Three spectrally distinct photoreceptors in diurnal and nocturnal Australian ants
AU - Ogawa, Yuri
AU - Falkowski, Marcin
AU - Narendra, A.
AU - Zeil, J.
AU - Hemmi, Jan
PY - 2015/6
Y1 - 2015/6
N2 - © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Ants are thought to be special among Hymenopterans in having only dichromatic colour vision based on two spectrally distinct photoreceptors. Many ants are highly visual animals, however, and use vision extensively for navigation. We show here that two congeneric day- and night-active Australian ants have three spectrally distinct photoreceptor types, potentially supporting trichromatic colour vision. Electroretinogram recordings show the presence of three spectral sensitivities with peaks (λmax) at 370, 450 and 550 nm in the night-active Myrmecia vindex and peaks at 370, 470 and 510 nm in the day-active Myrmecia croslandi. Intracellular electrophysiology on individual photoreceptors confirmed that the night-active M. vindex has three spectral sensitivities with peaks (λmax) at 370, 430 and 550 nm. A large number of the intracellular recordings in the night-active M. vindex show unusually broad-band spectral sensitivities, suggesting that photoreceptors may be coupled. Spectral measurements at different temporal frequencies revealed that the ultraviolet receptors are comparatively slow.We discuss the adaptive significance and the probability of trichromacy in Myrmecia ants in the context of dim light vision and visual navigation.
AB - © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Ants are thought to be special among Hymenopterans in having only dichromatic colour vision based on two spectrally distinct photoreceptors. Many ants are highly visual animals, however, and use vision extensively for navigation. We show here that two congeneric day- and night-active Australian ants have three spectrally distinct photoreceptor types, potentially supporting trichromatic colour vision. Electroretinogram recordings show the presence of three spectral sensitivities with peaks (λmax) at 370, 450 and 550 nm in the night-active Myrmecia vindex and peaks at 370, 470 and 510 nm in the day-active Myrmecia croslandi. Intracellular electrophysiology on individual photoreceptors confirmed that the night-active M. vindex has three spectral sensitivities with peaks (λmax) at 370, 430 and 550 nm. A large number of the intracellular recordings in the night-active M. vindex show unusually broad-band spectral sensitivities, suggesting that photoreceptors may be coupled. Spectral measurements at different temporal frequencies revealed that the ultraviolet receptors are comparatively slow.We discuss the adaptive significance and the probability of trichromacy in Myrmecia ants in the context of dim light vision and visual navigation.
U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2015.0673
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2015.0673
M3 - Article
VL - 282
SP - 1
EP - 7
JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: series B
JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: series B
SN - 0962-8452
IS - 1808
ER -