Table 1.
Residues present at seven sites in transmembrane helices II and III of the VS pigments of primates compared with the UVS pigments of two marsupials, the fat-tailed dunnart (GenBank accession number AY7724723) and honey possum (GenBank accession number AY772472), and two rodents, the mouse (GenBank accession number NM_007538) and rat (GenBank accession number NM_031015). The seven sites were identified by Shi et al. [29] from site-directed mutagenesis experiments. Species in italics possess a SWS1 pseudogene. Alignments of the amino acid sequences that form transmembrane helices 2–3 of the different opsins referred to in this table are presented in electronic supplementary material, figure S1, together with the pigments of the other species referred to in the text.
| VS pigments |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| primates |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| UVS pigments |
Simian |
Prosimian |
|||||||||||||||||||
| amino acid sites | dunnart/honey possum | mouse/rat | great apes | Old World monkey | New World monkey | tarsier | aye-aye | brown lemur | ring-tailed lemur | sportive lemur | Coquerel's sifaka | woolly lemur | Coquerel's mouse lemur | grey mouse lemur | fat-tailed dwarf lemur | greater dwarf lemur | lesser galago | small-eared galago | greater galago | pygmy slow loris | slow loris |
| 46 | F | F | T | T | I | V | F | L | L | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F |
| 49 | F | F | L | L | L | S | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F |
| 52 | T | T | F | F | L | I | T | A | A | T | T | T | T | T | T | T | T | T | T | T | T |
| 86 | F | F | L | L | L | L | F | C | C | S | L | V | S | S | S | S | Y | N | N | C | Y |
| 93 | T | T | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P |
| 114 | G/Aa | A | G | G/Aa | G/Aa | G | G | G | G | G | G | G | G | G | G | G | G | G | G | G | G |
| 118 | S | S | T | T | T | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | C | C | C | C | S | S | S | S | S |
| Haplorrhini | Strepsirrhini | ||||||||||||||||||||
aAla is present in the honey possum, in three of four species of Old World and one of four species of New World monkeys.