Researchers at New York University's Center for Developmental Genetics report that the photoreceptors in an insect's eye can change their traditional functions during metamorphosis. The study appears in the most recent issue of the journal Nature.
The researchers found that when photoreceptors responsible for detecting the color green die off during metamorphosis a second class of photoreceptors-those responsible for detecting the color blue-then fill the role of detecting the color green. These rare switches, the authors speculate, are likely the result of changing life patterns.
The study's authors, NYU Biology postdoctoral fellow Simon Sprecher and Professor Claude Desplan, examined the eye of the fruit fly Drosophila. Fruit flies can be analyzed and manipulated in exquisite details by biologists and serve as a powerful model system to understand biological processes such as vision.
Fly's life starts as a larva. Larvae possess two very simple eyes, each composed of 12 photoreceptors, eight of which are devoted to detecting the color green, labeled Rh6, and four used to detect blue, labeled Rh5. The Rh6 photoreceptors are also used in the functioning of the fly's biological clock.