Meeting Abstract

7.4  Monday, Jan. 4  Gene duplication and divergence in live-bearer opsin genes TAYLOR, JS*; BREDEN, F; CHURCHER, AM; LAVER, CR; OWENS, GL; WARD, MN; WINDSOR, DJ; University of Victoria; Simon Fraser University; University of Victoria; University of Victoria; University of Victoria; University of Victoria; University of Victoria taylorjs@uvic.ca

Fish show an astonishing degree of opsin gene duplication and divergence, and the livebearers have proven to be no exception to the rule. Guppies Poecilia retculata (family Poeciliidae) possess ten visual opsins, all of which are expressed, albeit to varying degrees. Guppy males are very colourful and as part of our efforts to test the hypothesis that opsin gene duplication and divergence plays a role in colour-based sexual selection in this species, we have used southern-blotting, PCR, and DNA sequencing to characterize the opsin gene repertoires from other poeciliids and from two species (the one-sided livebearer and the four-eyed fish) in the sister group Anablepidae. These surveys show that retrotransposition, tandem duplication, gene conversion and key-site amino acid substitutions have all lead to the remarkable opsin gene number and sequence diversity found among species in these lineages.