Light environment drives evolution of color vision genes in butterflies and moths

Abstract

Yash Sondhi et al. annotate the genomes and transcriptomes of 175 Lepidoptera species and identify 14 independent opsin duplications associated with bright environments. From estimating their rates of evolution, the authors reveal that opsins from diurnal taxa evolve faster, and that high light availability increases opsin diversity and evolution rate in this order.