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Vision

Dichromatism in macaque monkeys

Nature volume 402, pages 139–140 (1999)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 16 December 1999

Abstract

Old World primates have trichromatic vision because they have three types of cone photoreceptor, each of which is maximally sensitive to short, middle or long wavelengths of light1. Although a proportion of human males (about 8% of caucasians, for example) have X-chromosome-linked colour-vision abnormalities2, no non-human Old World primates have been found to be colour-vision defective3,4. We have tested 3,153 macaque monkeys but found only three dichromats, a frequency that is much lower than in humans.

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Figure 1: Physical maps of the L and the M genes.
Figure 2: Absorbance spectra of L, M and hybrid (R4G5) pigments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Speciation Mechanisms I, National Institute for Basic Biology, 38 Myodaijicho, Okazaki, 444-8585, Japan

    Akishi Onishi, Satoshi Koike, Miki Ida & Tetsuo Yamamori

  2. Department of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Akishi Onishi, Hiroo Imai & Yoshinori Shichida

  3. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience, Fuchu, Tokyo, 183-8526, Japan

    Satoshi Koike & Miki Ida

  4. Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Primate Research Institute, Kanrin, Inuyama, 484-8506, Aichi, Japan

    Osamu Takenaka

  5. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, Primate Research Institute, Kanrin, Inuyama, 484-8506, Aichi, Japan

    Akichika Mikami

  6. Center for Applied Primatology and Human Evolutionary Modelling Research, Primate Research Institute, Kanrin, Inuyama, 484-8506, Aichi, Japan

    Shunji Goto

  7. Laboratory of Neural Control, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Myodaijicho, 444-8585, Okazaki, Japan

    Akitoshi Hanazawa & Hidehiko Konatsu

  8. Department of Biology, Bogor Agricultural University, Jalan Pajajaran, 16143, Bogor, Indonesia

    Bambang Suryobrotoq

  9. Department of Ophthalmology, Jikei University School of Medicine, Minatoku, Tokyo, 105-0003, Japan

    Kenji Kitahara

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  1. Akishi Onishi
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  2. Satoshi Koike
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  8. Hidehiko Konatsu
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  9. Akichika Mikami
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  13. Tetsuo Yamamori
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tetsuo Yamamori.

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Onishi, A., Koike, S., Ida, M. et al. Dichromatism in macaque monkeys. Nature 402, 139–140 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/45966

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