Rhesus macaque cone ratio heritability

A defining feature of catarrhine primates is uniform trichromacy – the ability to distinguish red (long; L), green (medium; M), and blue (short; S) wavelengths of light. While the tuning of photoreceptors is conserved, the ratio of L:M cones in the retina is variable within and between species, with human cone ratios differing from other catarrhines. Yet, the sources and structure of variation in cone ratios are poorly understood, precluding a broader understanding of color vision variability. Here, we report a large-scale study of a pedigreed population of macaques. We collected foveal RNA and analysed opsin gene expression using cDNA. We estimated the additive genetic variance of cone ratios. The average L:M ratio and standard error was 1.03:1± 0.02. There was no age effect, and genetic contribution to variation was negligible. We found marginal sex effects with females having larger ratios than males. S cone ratios (0.143: 1± 0.002) had significant genetic variance with a heritabilit...狭鼻灵长类（catarrhine primates）的标志性特征为统一三色视觉（uniform trichromacy）——即能够区分红光（长波段；L）、绿光（中波段；M）与蓝光（短波段；S）的光波长。尽管光感受器的光谱调谐特性保守不变，但视网膜内L:M视锥细胞的比例在物种内部及物种间均存在变异，人类的视锥细胞比例与其他狭鼻灵长类存在差异。然而，视锥细胞比例变异的来源与结构仍鲜为人知，这阻碍了我们对色觉变异的更广泛认知。本研究针对猕猴（macaques）的谱系种群开展了大规模研究：我们采集了中央凹的RNA，并通过互补脱氧核糖核酸（cDNA）分析了视蛋白基因的表达情况，进而估算了视锥细胞比例的加性遗传方差。研究结果显示，L:M视锥细胞的平均比例及其标准误为1.03:1±0.02；未观察到年龄效应，且遗传对该变异的贡献可忽略不计；仅存在微弱的性别边际效应，雌性个体的比例高于雄性。S视锥细胞比例（0.143:1±0.002）具有显著的遗传方差，其遗传力……