Pau Balart i Garcia, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral researcher at the Fish Evolution Research Group (Zuzana Musilová - ERC project).
Research topic:
For many animal species, adjusting the visual system to the surrounding light is crucial to survival. At the molecular level, changes in the gene repertoire, functional diversity, and/or differential expression of visual opsin and rhodopsin genes are common evolutionary mechanisms for species inhabiting environments with particular light conditions. Studies of fish retinal photoreceptors have revealed some of the most extraordinary changes in gene repertoires among vertebrates; nevertheless, cellular-level functioning remains largely unexplored. To address this, our multi-omics approach integrates long-read genome sequencing, single-cell RNA-seq, and ATAC-seq to provide a detailed characterization of retinal photoreceptors in non-model fish species. This research offers a comprehensive macroevolutionary perspective on vertebrate eye adaptations to extremely dim-light environments.