Rhodopsin Molecular Evolution in Mammals Inhabiting Low Light Environments

Zhao, Huabin; Ru, Binghua; Teeling, Emma C.; Faulkes, Christopher G.; Zhang, Shuyi; Rossiter, Stephen J.

Of the African mole-rats (Family: Bathyergidae), two taxa (Bathyergus suillus and Heterocephalus glaber) shared the substitution L194P and had an inferred l max of 498 nm, whereas the other two (Cryptomys damarensis and Heliophobius argenteocinereus) shared the double mutations D83N and L194P, and so their l max was estimated to be 496 nm. For two species (the Hottentot golden mole and the horse), data on two critical sites were not available; however, these sites were conserved across all other mammals, and so we assumed that their l max was 501 and 499 nm, respectively (Table S4, Figure S2 , Supplementary Material online).