Work Package 1 – Exploring the Squamate Visual System [Completed]
Fieldwork was be carried out in South Australia, Western Australia Queensland for target species. During these fieldwork expeditions I collected lizards and snakes with the aim of covering most of ecological diversity and multiple lineages. Fieldwork was done under research permits issued by Australian State governments.
The retinal tissues for each of these lizard and snakes was removed, RNA extracted and sent to NGS sequencing. I currently have sequenced the eye transcriptome of 130 squamates.
Additionally, I collected microspectrophotometry data for 24 animals and electroretinography data for 18 Squamates through collaborators. Further 26 species were studied for retinal anatomy and photoreceptor complement under light and electronic microscopy methods.
1.2.2 Work package 2 – Expanding Taxon Selection [Completed]
I designed a gene-capture probes to sequence genes involved in visual sensory perception, circadian rhythm and genes involved in retinal degeneration (retinopathy diseases) in humans. I collected the samples from the ABTC collection in the South Australia Museum and across other Natural History Museums across the world. Sampling comprises 95% of all squamate lineages, diverse ecologies (nocturnal vs diurnal, subterranean vs above ground, terrestrial vs aquatic). I sequenced the visual genes for 580 species.
1.2.3 Work package 3: Phylogenomic, comparative genomic and transcriptomic analysis [in progress]: Transcriptomes have been assembled and annotated. Gene-captures were also assembled and visual genes identified. Pipelines to analyse genomic and transcriptomic data was designed. Phylogenetic analysis and comparative genomic analysis of vision genes is still underway given the enormous amount of data.
The results of the analysis of the current data, suggests that the visual system of lizards and snakes is a highly diverse shaped by gene-loss, positive selection and polymorphism. The diversity of the visual system in lizards and snakes can be observed in the eye anatomy, retinal structure and diversity in their vision genes.
The results were disseminated in several publications and through presentation at international conferences. The results of this were also disseminated in the results in brief of the cordis website
https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/415770-looking-into-how-complex-eyes-of-lizards-and-snakes-evolved through public engagement activities in Australia and UK and through 2 nature TV shows.
