Content area
Full Text
About the Authors:
Benjamin Mason
* E-mail: [email protected] (BM); [email protected] (VZS)
Current address: ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Affiliations Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, United States of America, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America
Michael Schmale
Affiliation: Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America
Patrick Gibbs
Affiliation: Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America
Margaret W. Miller
Affiliation: National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Miami, Florida, United States of America
Qiang Wang
Affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, United States of America
Konstantin Levay
Affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, United States of America
Valery Shestopalov
Affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, United States of America
Vladlen Z. Slepak
* E-mail: [email protected] (BM); [email protected] (VZS)
Affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, United States of America
Introduction
Nearly every phylum in the animal kingdom contains representatives with at least simple “visual” structures. These are diverse, in both form and function, ranging from the eye-like organelles found in some single-celled dinoflagellates and the ocelli of sponge larvae to the complex camera-type eyes of cephalopods, compound eyes of crustaceans and lens eyes of mammals [1]. Diverse examples of visual structures also exist within phyla and even within single species. One extreme example is found in the box jellyfish Tripedalia cystophora. This cnidarian has 24 eyes of four morphological types, including complex camera-type eyes and single-celled, pigmented ocelli, which it possesses during its larval stage [2].
In contrast, all life-stages of reef-building corals (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Hexacorallia: Scleractinia) lack even basic visual structures, yet notable examples of photosensitive behavior have been described in these organisms [3]. Light influences tentacle expansion and retraction [4], [5], regulates circadian clocks [6], [7], and has been implicated in the synchronization of reproductive timing [8]–[10]. It also influences the...