Loss of red opsin genes relaxes sexual isolation between skin-colour variants of medaka
2018
Kamijo, Makiko | Kawamura, Mayuko | Fukamachi, Shoji
Colour vision is often essential for animals. Fine discrimination of colours enhances the ability of animals to find food, predators, or mating partners. Using two colour variants of medaka (Oryzias latipes), which mate assortatively depending on visual cues (pale grey versus dark orange), we recently established red colour-blind strains by knocking out the red opsin (long-wavelength-sensitive) genes and elucidated that the fish were indeed insensitive to red light. In the present study, we investigated the mate choice of these red-blind fish. The colour variants with normal colour vision strongly preferred to mate with their own strain. The red-blind ones also preferred their own strain; i.e. they still mated assortatively. However, their preference was significantly weaker than that of fish with normal colour vision. In other words, the red-blind fish showed increased sexual interest in the other colour variant. These results indicated that reduced sensitivity to red light also reduced their ability to discriminate colours. This empirical evidence directly demonstrates that a change in cone-opsin repertoire changes mating decision behaviours, which would affect gene flow and speciation processes between conspecific colour variants in nature, as suggested in other studies.
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