[Present status of our knowledge on color vision in the animal kingdom].
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
In 1912 Carl von Hess, Professor of Ophthalmology in Munich, published the first comprehensive monograph on color vision in animals. He concluded that fish and all invertebrates are color-blind. At the same time, Karl von Frisch demonstrated that fish and honeybees can see and distinguish colors. The theory of trichromacy (Young-Helmholtz) is valid only for primates and some (e.g., bees) but not all insects. Almost all animals can see colors, and the eyes of some invertebrates contain up to 11 types of spectrally different receptor cells. Most animals - with the exception of mammals and cephalopods - can see ultraviolet and/or far red light. Therefore, many animals perceive more colors than human beings.
We evaluated the results of Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue tests in age- and lens density-matched eyes of normal subjects, glaucoma suspects, and patients with primary open-angle glaucoma. With these controls in place, no significant correlation between the test results and age or between the test results and lens density was found. However, a significant difference in the total error scores on the 100-Hue test remained. This difference could not be explained by pupil size or medications taken. We concluded that color vision loss in glaucoma is in part attributable to the disease process and cannot be explained solely on the basis of changes in age and lens density.
We examined 75 glaucoma patients to determine the relationship between losses in color vision and their highest intraocular pressure. The losses of blue chromatic (P less than .0001) and achromatic (P = .0006) sensitivity were strongly related to highest intraocular pressure. The dysfunction of blue chromatic and achromatic pathways may therefore indicate damage from increased intraocular pressure.
The present experiment investigated the possibility that variation in fundus pigmentation among individuals may be related to differential color sensitivity. Fifty black and white observers representing a wide range of skin (and fundus) pigmentation made direct heterochromatic brightness matches for a white standard field against each of five chromatic comparison fields. Results indicated that pigment (i.e., racial) differences in color vision do not exist, as measured by the two psychophysical methods used. The data showed that the heterochromatic matches were less reliable for the more saturated colors, violet and red, and also that the psychophysical methods used to obtain the matching data differentially influenced the results for the more saturated colors.
Most Neotropical primate species possess a polymorphic X-linked and a monomorphic autosomal color vision gene. Consequently, populations are composed of both dichromatics and trichromatics. Most theories on the maintenance of this genetic system revolve around possible advantages for foraging ecology. To examine the issue from a different angle, we compared the numbers and relative frequencies of alleles at the X-linked locus among three species of Saimiri representing a wide range of geographical and behavioral variation in the genus. Exons 3, 4, and 5 of the X-linked opsin gene were sequenced for a large number of X chromosomes for all three species. Several synonymous mutations were detected in exons 4 and 5 for the originally reported alleles but only a single nonsynonymous change was detected. Two alleles were found that appeared to be the result of recombination events. The low occurrence of recombinant alleles and absence of mutations in the amino acids critical for spectral tuning indicates that stabilizing selection acts to maintain the combinations of critical sites specific to each allele. Allele frequencies were approximately the same for all Saimiri species, with a slight but significant difference between S. boliviensis and S. oerstedii. No apparent correlation exists between allele frequencies and behavioral or biogeographical differences between species, casting doubt on the speculation that the spectral sensitivities of the alleles have been maintained because they are specifically well-tuned to Saimiri visual ecology. Rather, the spectral tuning peaks might have been maintained because they are as widely spaced as possible within the limited range of middlewave to longwave spectra useful to all primates. This arrangement creates a balance between maximizing the distance between spectral tuning peaks (allowing the color opponency of the visual system to distinguish between peaks) and maximizing the number of alleles within a limited range (yielding the greatest possible frequency of heterozygotes).
In normal trichromats, the long- (L) and middle-wavelength-sensitive (M) pigment genes are arranged in a head-to-tandem array on the X chromosome. Two amino acids at positions 277 and 285, encoded by exon 5 of the L and M genes, respectively, are essential for the spectral difference between L and M pigments whose spectral peaks are at approximately 560 and 530 nm. Intragenic or intergenic unequal crossing-over commonly occurs between the highly homologous L and M genes, resulting in red-green color vision deficiencies. The dichromacy is usually associated with a single L gene for deuteranopia or a single 5' L-M 3' hybrid gene with M-gene exon 5 for protanopia. We clinically diagnosed a total of 88 male dichromats using a Nagel model I anomaloscope, which included one unclassified subject in addition to 31 protanopes and 56 deuteranopes. The objective of this study was to characterize the phenotype of the subject and to determine the genotype of his X-linked pigment genes. The subject accepted not only any red-green mixture but also an extended yellow-scale range at each matching point (i.e. 20 to 32 scale units at the green primary and 3.5 to 6 scale units at the red primary). The slopes of regression lines were in the range of -0.34 to -0.23, while the mean slopes for the protanopes and deuteranopes were -0.38 and -0.01, respectively. Spectral sensitivity tests showed that the subject's curve was shifted between the protanope and deuteranope curves. Molecular analysis revealed a novel form of a single pigment gene with a unique arrangement of exon 5 (Y277 from the L gene and A285 from the M gene). The predicted lambdamax (541 to 546 nm) of the unique pigment was closer to the M than to the L pigment. Our outcome suggests that intragenic unequal crossing-over may have occurred between amino acid positions 279 and 283.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Recent publicized reports based on the use of the Farnsworth Panel D-15 test suggest that a large percentage of young children have a deficiency of blue vision (tritan type). In our study, 413 school children (ages 3 to 10) were tested with both the Farnsworth Panel D-15 test, as well as the A.O. H-R-R plates. None of the children failed either test for blue-yellow vision when traditional scoring instructions were observed. As in previous reports, we find that the children make a number of minor errors which adults rarely make. These errors show marked age-related patterns, being more frequent in younger children. However, further analysis of these errors revealed that the relative frequency with which particular error types were made on the D-15 test was significantly correlated with the existing perceived color difference data for the visually normal adult population. In addition, retesting significantly reduced all error types and reversing the test sequence demonstrated that most of the minor errors were made in the last half of the test regardless of the color vision task. The overall increase in the number of minor test errors seen with young children seems unrelated to color defects. The modified scoring methods in conjunction with the characteristics of the Panel D-15 test design account for the high percentage of errors classified as errors of blue vision.
We are using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to establish a physical map of the human Xq28 region. We have identified a new probe 35.239 (DXYS64), localized in Xq28 by somatic hybrid mapping and belonging to a region of greater than 99% homology between the X and the Y chromosomes. PFGE data show that probes 35.239 and the polymorphic locus DXS115 (probe 767) map within a common 300-kb BssHII fragment. Both probes, in addition, hybridize to 575-kb BssHII and 590-kb ClaI fragments that contain the gene coding for coagulation factor VIII (F8C). The order F8C-DXS115-DXYS64 could be determined. Our results also provide evidence for linkage between the red/green color vision locus (RCP,GCP) and probes MD13 and T1.7 (GdX, DXS254) within a 750-kb ClaI fragment. Although the latter two probes are located within 50 kb of the 3' end of the G6PD gene, a G6PD cDNA probe did not hybridize to this fragment. G6PD, on the other hand, could be linked to F8C on a 290-kb BssHII fragment. All these data allow us to propose the order (RCP,GCP)-MD13-GdX-G6PD-F8C-DXS115-DXYS 64. We also linked probes St14 (DXS52), MN12 (DXS33), and DX13 (DXS15) to a member of a small family of X-linked dispersed sequences (DNF22S3) within a 575-kb BssHII fragment. The preliminary physical map presented here should be useful for further fine mapping of disease genes in the Xq28 region and should be helpful in orientating efforts toward the cloning of sequences close to the fragile X syndrome.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Normal visual pigment gene arrays on the human X chromosome have a red gene at the first and a green gene at the second positions. More than half of the arrays have additional green genes downstream, but only the first two genes of the array are likely to be expressed in the retina. An array consisting of four genes in two Japanese participants, A121 and A447, was detected either by pulsed field gel electrophoresis and subsequent Southern hybridization or by single nucleotide primer extension reaction. In both participants, the first gene of the array was green, downstream genes were red and green, and the fourth gene was green. The red gene was determined to be at the second position by comparison of polymorphic sites among the intergenic regions that had been amplified by long-range PCR. Such an array with a reverse normal order of pigment genes, green-red as the first two, has never been reported before. They were expected to have normal color vision but showed protan deficiency (protanomaly), a phenotype lacking the red pigment. The red gene had no mutations in the exons and exon/intron boundaries, but had an A-71C substitution in the promoter in both participants.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The inclusion of cone mechanisms in a slightly revised version of an earlier model allows accounts of phenomena that involve receptor effects as well as dichromatic color vision. Intensity-dependent parameters that stimulate the adaptation of receptors and opponent and nonopponent mechanisms are varied to predict a wide range of data for both normals and dichromats, including: (i) color matching; (ii) the approximate apparent hue and saturation of the spectrum; (iii) foveal spectral sensitivities obtained by flicker photometry and by detection in the dark and under conditions of achromatic or chromatic adaptation; (iv) heterochromatic additivity failures in the dark-adapted and chromatically adapted eye; (v) approximate differences between brightness and luminance; and, (vi) color and wavelength discrimination under varying adaptation conditions.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
A cross-sectional study comparing response time and the percentage of items correctly identified in three color vision tests (Pflügertrident, HRR-AO pseudoisochromatic plates, and AO pseudoisochromatic plates) was carried out on 72 women (12 in each decade) ranging from ages 20 to 79 years. Overall, time scores increased across the age groups. Analysis of the correctness scores indicated that the AO pseudoisochromatic plates requiring the identification of numbers was more difficult than the other tests which consisted of geometric forms or the letter E. This differential difficulty increased as a function of age. There was no indication of color defect per se which led to the conclusion that figure complexity may be the key variable determining performance. The results were similar to those obtained by Lee and Pollack (1978) in their study of the Embedded Figures Test.