The diversity of opsins in Lake Baikal amphipods (Amphipoda: Gammaridae)

Vision is a crucial sense for the evolutionary success of many animal groups. In this work, we explore the diversity of opsins in over 100 amphipod (Crustacea: Amphipoda) species with sequenced transcriptomes and concluded that it is generally restricted to middle wavelength-sensitive (MWS) and long wavelength-sensitive (LWS) opsins. We found that multiple lineages of amphipods, including two lineages from the deep and ancient Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia, lost the expression of MWS opsins. We provide reassembled transcriptomes and list of opsin sequences.