The recently characterized opsin group of xenopsins is likely a major player in animal eye evolution and may have been present in an ancient, highly plastic eye photoreceptor cell type.
Parallel losses of short-wave light sensitivity in diverse bats occurred through independent changes at multiple steps in the conversion of genotype into functional phenotype, including pre-, during, and post-transcription.
Epsin has a key role in the coupling of actin to endocytic clathrin coated pits that is required for their maturation and helps capture SNAREs at endocytic clathrin coated pits.
Gamete release in the jellyfish Clytia is mediated by an opsin photopigment expressed in neurosecretory cells of the gonad ectoderm, which release an oocyte maturation hormone in response to light.
A new opsin receptor is light-sensitive and expressed in a unique type of photoreceptor in a flatworm that encloses over 400 sensory cilia within its cell membrane.
A new soma-targeted variant of the large-conductance blue-light-sensitive opsin CoChR combined with advanced optical stimulation methods allows high-efficiency all-optical neuronal imaging and stimulation in mouse brain in vivo.
The employment of xenopsin in ciliary and mixed microvillar/ciliary eye sensory cells in several protostome animals suggests high evolutionary plasticity of photoreceptors.
Generation of stable transgenic opsin lines together with in vivo calibration of their efficacy using behavioural and electrophysiological assays constitutes a novel optogenetic toolkit in zebrafish.
Molecular, cellular and behavioral genetic approaches in Platynereis dumerilii indicate that r-Opsins can act as ancient, light-dependent modulators of mechanosensation, and suggest that light-independent mechanosensory roles of r-Opsins evolved secondarily.
The first genomic view of beetle luciferase evolution indicates evolutionary independence of luciferase between fireflies and click-beetles, and provide valuable datasets which will accelerate the discovery of new biotechnological tools.
