Eye Size Does Not Change with Artificial Selection on Relative Telencephalon Size in Guppies (Poecilia reticulata)

Variation in eye size is sometimes closely associated with brain morphology. Visual information, detected by the retina, is transferred to the optic tectum to coordinate eye and body movements towards stimuli and thereafter distributed into other brain regions for further processing. The telencephalon is an important visual processing region in many vertebrate species and a highly developed region in visually dependent species. Yet, the existence of a coevolutionary relationship between telencephalon size and eye size remains relatively unknown.

Here, we use male and female guppies artificially selected for small- and large-relative-telencephalon-size to test if artificial selection on telencephalon size results in changes in eye size. In addition, we performed an optomotor test as a proxy for visual acuity.

We found no evidence that eye size changes with artificial selection on telencephalon size. Eye size was similar in both absolute and relative terms between the two selection regimes but was larger in females. This is most likely because of the larger body size in females, but it could also reflect their greater need for visual capacity due to sex-specific differences in foraging and mating behaviour. Although the optomotor response was stronger in guppies with a larger telencephalon, we found no evidence for differences in visual acuity between the selection regimes.

Our study suggests that eye size and visual perception in guppies do not change rapidly with strong artificial selection on telencephalon size.