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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

Characterization of Changes in Megalagrion Opsin Genes to Detect Signatures of Selection

Janananda, Bhagya G 11 May 2011 (has links)
Megalagrion damselflies have radiated into new breeding habitats independently at least six times in the Hawaiian archipelago, and have evolved bright body coloration numerous times. We hypothesize that these radiations are correlated with specific changes in the opsin proteins. We isolated and characterized two opsin genes from nine different Megalagrion species. The opsin phylogeny is consistent with the phylogeny based on breeding habitat preference of Megalagrion species supporting the correlation between the evolutionary changes of vision and habitat shifts. dN/dS ratios of opsin sequences show that these genes are evolving under purifying selection, though some sites of the opsin genes might be evolving under positive selection. Two terrestrial-breeding Megalagrion species show higher rates of opsin gene evolution that are correlated with a rapid transformation in their breeding habitats from aquatic to terrestrial. These results support the hypothesis that opsin gene evolution has played a role in Megalagrion radiation in Hawaii.

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