Evolution Of Human Vision Clearly Understood

A clear, molecular view of how human color vision evolved

Emory Health Sciences. "A clear, molecular view of how human color vision evolved." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 December 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141218210100.htm>.

           Recently, scientists have made a clear understanding about the evolution of human color vision. The human evolution from ultraviolet to violet vision. It took millions of years of genetic mutations in visual pigments for humans to acquire color vision or the full-cover spectrum. Scientists have finalized their findings in the journal of PLOS Genetics. Biologists at Emory Univesity have mapped evolutionary pathways dating back from 90 million years. They identified "5,040 possible pathways for the amino acid changes required to bring about the genetic changes". When experiments were done for every single possibility, seven genetic changes individually had no effect. However, when several changes were combined in an order, the evolutionary pathway was complete. They were able to back up the molecular pathways at the chemical, genetic, and functional level using theoretical computation, biophysics, quantum chemistry and genetic engineering. In general, Scientists synthesized ancestral pigments and proteins from humans and vertebrates and tested them. Scientists observed the changes of the opsin genes; there are 5 classes of opsin genes that are responsible for dim-light and colored vision. Pieces of the genes can tell how the species changed its vision by adapting in the environment. About 90 million years ago, mammalian ancestor had UV-sensitive and red-sensitive color. By around 30 million years ago, mammalian ancestors had evolved four classes of opsin genes, giving the ability to see color vision.

            This article relates to Term 2 curriculum because it explains about how humans have evolved from ultraviolet to violet vision. In the course, it explains how natural selections occurs, meaning the genes that are more efficient and useful pass on while the rest die off because of limited resources in the environment. Similarly, the articles provide that human ancestors have adapted to their environment resulting in favor of color vision to thrive rather than nocturnal vision. In the previous course, the class learned how every amino acid is coded by specific genes in DNA. The article uses how these amino acids to proteins create biological molecules. Also, mutations were what caused changes in eyesight for humans, which the class was taught how mutations results in the change of DNA. Overall, this article allowed us to apply knowledge such as Darwin's Principles of natural selection, and to see it in effect in the real world.