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Journal of Heredity Advance Access published online on August 17, 2009
Journal of Heredity, doi:10.1093/jhered/esp060
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© The American Genetic Association. 2009. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Brief Communication

New Primers for the Avian SWS1 Pigment Opsin Gene Reveal New Amino Acid Configurations in Spectral Sensitivity Tuning Sites

Anders Ödeen, and Olle Håstad

From the Department of Animal Ecology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, S-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden (Ödeen); and Department of Evolutionary Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18A, S-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden (Håstad)

Address corresponding to Anders Ödeen at the address above, or e-mail: anders.odeen{at}ebc.uu.se.

Recently, polymerase chain reaction–based estimates of visual pigment spectral tuning from genomic DNA have offered an alternative to the authoritative but rather slow and complicated retinal microspectrophotometry method. The genomic DNA method involves sequencing a fragment of the short-wavelength sensitive pigment, type 1 (SWS1) opsin gene covering amino acid positions 86, 90, and 93 and has been utilized in a wide range of avian species. Other key tuning sites have been proposed but not sequenced in the genomic DNA–based spectral sensitivity studies. We have designed 5 new primers for sequencing gene fragments of the ultraviolet-/violet-tuned SWS1 opsin gene containing the first, second and third, and sixth and seventh {alpha}-helical transmembrane regions and the spectral tuning sites 49, 86, 90, 93, 116, 118 and 298. Testing these primers on various bird species reveals some novel combinations of amino acid residues at the tuning sites. The potential significance of these on spectral tuning is discussed.

Key Words: color vision • sequencing • ultraviolet sensitive • violet sensitive

Corresponding Editor: Prof. David Burt

Received March 20, 2009
Revised June 25, 2009
Accepted June 30, 2009


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