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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Life sciences: general issues > Evolution
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Evolution and Senses - Opsins, Bitter Taste, and Olfaction (Paperback, 2013 ed.)
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Evolution and Senses - Opsins, Bitter Taste, and Olfaction (Paperback, 2013 ed.)
Series: SpringerBriefs in Biology
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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This book focuses on sensing and the evolution of animals. Using
the five senses (visual, auditory, and olfactory perception, and
taste and touch), animals can receive environmental stimuli and
respond to them. Changes in these sensitivities might cause changes
in aspects of animals lives such as habitat, activity timing, and
diet and vice versa. Recent advances in genome and molecular
analysis enable us to investigate certain changes in the receptors
or mechanisms involved in sensing and provide clues for
understanding the evolution of animals related to those changes.
The first chapter deals with the molecular evolution of opsins. In
addition to the well-known function of opsins as visual receptors,
opsins can be related to non-visual photoreception such as
photoentrainment of circadian rhythm, photoperiodism, and
background adaptation. Molecular phylogenic studies reveal that all
opsin genes have evolved from one ancient opsin gene. The
evaluation of the functions of each extant opsin protein based on
the molecular features enables us to predict the molecular
evolution and diversification of opsins during the evolution of
animals. These studies shed light on which amino-acid substitutions
cause the functional diversification of opsins and how they have
influenced the evolution of animals. The second chapter has to do
with bitter taste perception, a key detection mechanism against the
ingestion of bioactive substances. Genetic and behavioral evidence
reveal the existence of "non-taster" Japanese macaques for specific
bitter compounds, which originated in a restricted region of Japan.
This finding might provide a clue for elucidating the ecological,
evolutionary, and neurobiological aspects of bitter taste
perception of primates. The third chapter presents an extreme
example of the evolution of olfaction, namely, that fully aquatic
amniotes have generally reduced their olfactory capacity
considerably compared to their terrestrial relatives.
Interestingly, the remaining olfactory abilities are quite
different among three fully aquatic amniotes investigated: toothed
whales have no nervous system structures that mediate olfaction,
but baleen whales can smell in air, and it has been suggested that
sea snakes smell underwater."
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