[Pollinator] [beemonitoring] Hummingbird "sweet genes"

[Lisa Horth]

Peter,

I think your point is an interesting one.

The NewScientist blurb says T1R2 was lost from birds (but retained in
lizards).

Now, hummers were just found to use T1R1 for tasting sweet (instead of
 tasting 'savory' with it, like other vertebrates).

Liberies is quoted as saying "The re-evolution of sugar receptors may have
happened multiple times". So, I'd expect that the authors of the Science
paper would agree with you and will very likely search other (sugar eating)
bird species for a functional T1Rs (especially T1R1s since part of their
cool find is that it has been co-opted for a new function: sweet detection
not savory detection).

The loss and regain (or shift in use) of sensory receptor function is cool
and occurs in vomeronasal and visual receptors, too. For example, deep sea
coelacanths have functional 'visual receptors' (opsins) that have evolved
to only a tiny range of light that is visible in deep sea water. They have
lost some receptors entirely, like the T1R2 was lost from birds.
Shallow-water, sexually selecting guppies however, have a large number of
visual color receptors, explaining how the females see all those dramatic
tail colors.

Similarly, butterflies have more opsins than bees do, but that might not be
news to this list........

Lisa





On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 11:43 AM, Peter Bernhardt bernhap2 at slu.edu
[beemonitoring] <beemonitoring-noreply at yahoogroups.com> wrote:

>
>
> The following link will take you to a popular article on the evolution and
> genetics of taste buds on a hummingbird's tongue.  The article insists that
> most birds have lost the ability to taste the sweetness in foods.  I'm not
> so sure I agree.  What about all those fruit eating species in so many
> families as well as nectar drinking birds in the Meliphagidae,
> Nectarinidae, Zosteropidae etc.?
>
>
> http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26089-hummingbirds-turned-savoury-into-sweet-to-taste-nectar.html#.U_diqFb5gTs
>
>  __._,_.___
>   ------------------------------
> Posted by: Peter Bernhardt <bernhap2 at slu.edu>
> ------------------------------
>     Reply via web post
> <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/beemonitoring/conversations/messages/3501;_ylc=X3oDMTJxam9zMWlpBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE3NTk4NTQ1BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA4MzEyNQRtc2dJZAMzNTAxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3JwbHkEc3RpbWUDMTQwODcyMjE5MQ--?act=reply&messageNum=3501>
> •  Reply to sender
> <bernhap2 at slu.edu?subject=Re%3A%20Hummingbird%20%22sweet%20genes%22> •
> Reply to group
> <beemonitoring at yahoogroups.com?subject=Re%3A%20Hummingbird%20%22sweet%20genes%22>
> • Start a New Topic
> <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/beemonitoring/conversations/newtopic;_ylc=X3oDMTJmNW44a3UyBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE3NTk4NTQ1BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA4MzEyNQRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNudHBjBHN0aW1lAzE0MDg3MjIxOTE->
> • Messages in this topic
> <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/beemonitoring/conversations/topics/3501;_ylc=X3oDMTM1MzVyZHA0BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE3NTk4NTQ1BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA4MzEyNQRtc2dJZAMzNTAxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3Z0cGMEc3RpbWUDMTQwODcyMjE5MQR0cGNJZAMzNTAx>
> (1)
> ------------------------------
>    Yahoo Groups
> Did you know?
> <https://help.yahoo.com/kb/groups/SLN15811.html>
> Learn about editing tables within Groups
>   ------------------------------
>  Visit Your Group
> <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/beemonitoring/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmcmFpcmRnBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE3NTk4NTQ1BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA4MzEyNQRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0MDg3MjIxOTE->
>
>    - New Members
>    <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/beemonitoring/members/all;_ylc=X3oDMTJnNWc1dDZpBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE3NTk4NTQ1BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA4MzEyNQRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2bWJycwRzdGltZQMxNDA4NzIyMTkx>
>    2
>
>  [image: Yahoo! Groups]
> <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlcGQ0aWZqBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzE3NTk4NTQ1BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA4MzEyNQRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQwODcyMjE5MQ-->
> • Privacy <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> •
> Unsubscribe
> <beemonitoring-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe> • Terms
> of Use <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/>
>
>    .
>
>  __,_._,___
>



-- 
Lisa Horth, PhD
Haupt Fellow
Smithsonian Gardens
Washington DC
(202) 633-5849
         &
Associate Professor
Dept of Biological Science
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA 23529
lhorth at odu.edu
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20140824/b057fedf/attachment.html>