The Dynamic Evolutionary History of Pancrustacean Eyes and Opsins

Pancrustacea (Hexapoda plus Crustacea) display an enormous diversity of eye designs, including multiple types of compound eyes and single-chambered eyes, often with color vision and/or polarization vision. Although the eyes of some pancrustaceans are well-studied, there is still much to learn about the evolutionary paths to this amazing visual diversity. Here, we examine the evolutionary history of eyes and opsins across the principle groups of Pancrustacea. First, we review the distribution of lateral and median eyes, which are found in all major pancrustacean clades (Oligostraca, Multicrustacea, and Allotriocarida). At the same time, each of those three clades has taxa that lack lateral and/or median eyes. We then compile data on the expression of visual r-opsins (rhabdomeric opsins) in lateral and median eyes across Pancrustacea and find no evidence for ancient opsin clades expressed in only one type of eye. Instead, opsin clades with eye-specific expression are products of recent gene duplications, indicating a dynamic past, during which opsins often changed expression from one type of eye to another. We also investigate the evolutionary history of peropsins and r-opsins, which are both known to be expressed in eyes of arthropods. By searching published transcriptomes, we discover for the first time crustacean peropsins and suggest that previously reported odonate opsins may also be peropsins. Finally, from analyzing a reconciled, phylogenetic tree of arthropod r-opsins, we infer that the ancestral pancrustacean had four visual opsin genes, which we call LW2, MW1, MW2, and SW. These are the progenitors of opsin clades that later were variously duplicated or lost during pancrustacean evolution. Together, our results reveal a particularly dynamic history, with losses of eyes, duplication and loss of opsin genes, and changes in opsin expression between types of eyes.