Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T17:04:37.240Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The visual pigments of a deep-water malacosteid fish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Frederick Crescitelli
Frederick Crescitelli
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The present investigation is a confirmation and extension of the idea that visual pigments adapted to the quality of their own bioluminescence have evolved in certain deep-water marine fishes. In this case a single fish (Malacosteus danae) of the family Malacosteidae, known to have red-emitting photophores, was trawled up in daylight from the Pacific off the coast of Southern California. Retinal extractions were found to contain two photopigments with absorbance maxima, one at 556 nm, the second at 514 nm. From the spectral positions of the oximes formed by bleaching in the presence of hydroxylamine it was inferred that the 556-pigment is an A2-pigment and the 514-pigment, an Aj-pigment. Evidence was also obtained from the effect of hydroxylamine on the unbleached extract of the possible presence of a photopigment that was bleached by the daylight when the fish was brought to the surface. This pigment, also identified as an A,-component from the oxime spectrum, could have been a moiety of the 514-photopigment but the possibility of a third visual pigment in the retina of this fish cannot be discounted. Except for this hydroxylamine effect the results are in agreement with published data from Aristostomias scintillans.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , February 1989 , pp. 43 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Crescitelli, F., 1977. The visual pigments of geckos and other vertebrates: an essay in comparative biology. In Handbook of Sensory Physiology, vol. VII/5. The Visual System in Vertebrates (ed. F., Crescitelli), pp. 391–449Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Dartnall, H.J.A., 1967. The visual pigment of the green rods. Vision Research, 7, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denton, E.J., Gilpin-Brown, J.B. & Wright, P.G., 1970. On the ‘filters’ in the photophores of mesopelagic fish and on a fish emitting red light and especially sensitive to red light. Journal of Physiology, 208, 72–73P.Google ScholarPubMed
Denton, E.J., Herring, P.J., Widder, E.A., Latz, M.F. & Case, J.F., 1985. The roles of filters in the photophores of oceanic animals and their relation to vision in the oceanic environment. Proceedings of the Royal Society (B), 225, 63–97.Google Scholar
Denton, E.J. & Warren, F.J., 1956. Visual pigments of deep-sea fish. Nature, London, 178, 1059.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denton, E.J. & Warren, F.J., 1957. The photosensitive pigments in the retinae of deep-sea fish. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 36, 651–662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locket, N.A., 1977. Adaptations to the deep-sea environment. In Handbook of Sensory Physiology, vol. VII/5. The Visual System in Vertebrates (ed. F., Crescitelli), pp. 67–192. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Munz, F.W., 1957. Photosensitive pigments from the retinas of deep-sea fishes. Science, New York, 125, 1142–1143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Munz, F.W., 1958. Photosensitive pigments from the retinas of certain deep-sea fishes. Journal of Physiology, 140, 220–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O‘Day, W.T. & Fernandez, H.R., 1974. Aristostomias scintillans (Malacosteidae): a deep-sea fish with visual pigments apparently adapted to its own bioluminescence. Vision Research, 14, 545–550.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Partridge, J.C., Archer, S.N. & Lythgoe, J.N., 1988. Visual pigments in the individual rods of deepsea fishes. Journal.of Comparative Physiology, 162(A), 543–550.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Somiya, H., 1982. ‘Yellow lens’ eyes of the stomiatoid deep sea fish, Malacosteus niger. Proceedings of the Royal Society (B), 215, 481–489.Google ScholarPubMed
Widder, E.A., Latz, M.F., Herring, P.J. & Case, J.F., 1984. Far-red bioluminescence from two deepsea fishes. Science, New York, 225, 512–514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed