Set 2: Nucleotide and Amino Acid Differences in Opsins
1. How many nucleotides and amino acids do the MWS and LWS genes/proteins have? Why are they so similar?
2. What are the key differences between the MWS and LWS genes and proteins? How did these differences arise?
3. What is meant by the term “spectral shift”?
4. Why do MWS and LWS absorption spectra look so similar?
5. Explain what “spectral tuning” is, and how mutations in DNA contribute to this process.
6. Summarize how some primates went from having an X chromosome with only the MWS opsin, to having an X chromosome with both the MWS and LWS opsin genes.
7. Given the description in the slides about spectral tuning, and the fact that females have 2 X chromosomes while males have only 1, explain why the statement that “Some females are better at distinguishing different colors than males, even if the male is NOT color blind” is not just male-bashing. Don’t both males and females have genes for LWS and MWS opsins? How can females have better color vision then?