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A short-wavelength photoreceptorclass in a deep-sea shrimp

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Date Issued:
1996
Title: A short-wavelength photoreceptorclass in a deep-sea shrimp.
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Name(s): Cronin, Thomas W.
Frank, Tamara M.
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Article
Date Issued: 1996
Publisher: The Royal Society
Place of Publication: London
Physical Form: pdf
Extent: 6 p.
Language(s): English
Identifier: FA00007342 (IID), 10.1098/rspb.1996.0127 (doi)
Note(s): In the world of midwater, mesopelagic animals, downwelling sunlight is filtered by the overlying water to a limited waveband centered near 475 nm. Consequently, the visual pigments of most of these species absorb maximally between 450 and 500 nm. The only exceptions occur in some fishes, which have additional visual pigments absorbing at long wavelengths (550-580 nm) matched to their red bioluminescence. We now find that the mesopelagic decapod shrimp Systellaspis debilis has two visual pigments. One of these absorbs maximally in the expected range ($\lambda _{\max}$ = 498 nm). but the other is maximally sensitive at very short wavelengths, approaching the near-ultraviolet ($\lambda _{\max}$ = 410 nm). The discovery of a visual receptor class absorbing at such short wavelengths in a mesopelagic animal suggests that visual systems in the deep sea may be far more diverse, and potentially more complex, than previously suspected.
Florida Atlantic University. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute contribution 1134
This manuscript is an author version with the final publication available and may be cited as: Cronin, T. W. & Frank, T. M. (1996). A short-wavelength photoreceptor class in a deep-sea shrimp. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 263(1372), 861-865.
Subject(s): Shrimps
Photoreceptors
Deep-sea shrimp
Visual pigments
Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1996.0127
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00007342
Host Institution: FAU