Rhodopsin Molecular Evolution in Mammals Inhabiting Low Light Environments

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

We combined the new rhodopsin sequences with published data and undertook phylogenetic reconstruction of rhodopsin gene sequences for 59 mammals, including groups that have evolved to occupy subterranean, aquatic and nocturnal niches (summarised in Figure 1 ). The unconstrained phylogenetic tree with ML bootstrap values and Bayesian posterior probabilities is shown in Figure 1 . Although some major clades were strongly supported (bats and Placentalia), the overall rhodopsin phylogeny was not completely consistent with the published species tree [34, 35] . The main deviations from the species topology were seen in the rodents, in which members of the Hystricomorpha (African molerats and allies) were now basal to the other placentals (including Myomorpha), and in the Yinpterochiroptera, in which fruit bats (Pteropodidae) were now basal to the echolocating taxa (horseshoe bats and allies + Yangochiroptera). This putative gene tree topology was also recovered when the phylogenetic analyses were repeated using the same data but excluding the 13 critical amino acids (data not shown), indicating that support for this phylogenetic signal is contained elsewhere in the gene.