Abstract
Albinism is a rare phenotype that affects the pigmentation in eyes, hair, and skin. The effects of albinism in color vision are still unclear. Our study aimed to evaluate the color vision phenotype and genotype of an albino capuchin monkey. An adult albino male capuchin monkey (Sapajus apella) had the L and M opsin gene analyzed, and was trained in a behavioral task of color discrimination. Color discrimination thresholds were determined along 20 chromatic axes around the background chromaticity. A color discrimination ellipse was drawn by interpolation among these thresholds. The albino monkey’s behavioral color discrimination ellipse showed poor discrimination along the red–green axis indicating a deutan phenotype. Genetic analysis revealed only the presence of the L gene in the albino monkey. This result did not differ from that obtained with ten previously tested non-albino monkeys. Behavioral and molecular analyses agreed that the albino capuchin monkey had color vision similar to that of non-albino dichromat monkeys, suggesting no influence of albinism on color discrimination.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the support of our friends and coworkers of the Labvis and EEP on scientific brainstorming and animal care. We also thank Maria de Nazaré Nascimento for veterinary assistance and Adilson Pastana for monkey management. This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq 448228/2011-0 to OFG) and by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo—FAPESP (Master's Fellowship to LDH 2011/05059-8 and Projeto Temático 2014/26818-2 to DFV). Author DFV is a 1 A CNPq Productivity Fellow 309409/2015-2).
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This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq 448228/2011-0 to DFV, 573972/2008-7 to OFG and Chamada Universal 01/2016—Faixa A, P427827/2016-7 to PRKG), by CNPq Productivity Fellowships to DFV (309409/2015-2), OFG (P309475/2018-0) and GSS (310845/2018-1), by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Master Schoolarship 2011/05059-8 to LDH, Thematic Project 2014/26818-2 to DFV, 2008/57705-8, and by the National Institute of Science and Technology project on Behavior, Cognition and Education).
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HLD: experiment conception, data collection, data analysis, article drafting, and article revisioning. OJCP: data collection and article revisioning. BDMO: data analysis and article revisioning. LRC: data collection and article revisioning. SGS: data analysis and article revisioning. SLCL: experiment conception and data analysis. GOF: experiment conception, data analysis, and article revisioning. GPRK: experiment conception, data collection, data analysis, and article revisioning. VDF: experiment conception, data analysis, and article revisioning.
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All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted (Ethics Committee for Animal Research from Federal University of Pará—CEPAE-UFPA PS014/2015).
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Henriques, L.D., Oliveira, J.C.P., Bonci, D.M.O. et al. Behavioral and genetic color vision evaluation of an albino male capuchin monkey (Sapajus apella). J Comp Physiol A 205, 529–536 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-019-01342-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-019-01342-4