Searching for light-interacting genes in transcriptomes from non-model organisms

Eyes are an excellent system for establishing causative links between genotype and phenotype because their genetic components tend to be well-characterized and deeply conserved. However, we lack genomic or transcriptomic resources for many species that are amenable to the physiological, developmental, or evolutionary study of eyes and vision. In this study, collaborators from multiple institutions worked together to produce new data and new approaches for studying genes expressed by eyes and other light-interacting tissues. We used high throughput sequencing to discover orthologs of light-interacting genes expressed in 28 vision-related tissues from a range of cephalopod mollusks, arthropods, and cnidarians. We have made available to vision researchers these genetic data, as well as new resources for analyzing high throughput genetic data. These new data and tools will accelerate the understanding of genotype-phenotype connections and evolution in a diversity of animal visual systems.