Steck, Mireille2017-12-182017-12-182016-05http://hdl.handle.net/10125/51352M.S. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2016.Includes bibliographical references.Evolution of the crustacean visual system is complex and cryptic; unusual eye types coupled with an abundance of visual pigments depicts a history of rapid diversification. Using transcriptomic analysis, visual phototransduction genes were identified from whole copepods of Neocalanus flemingeri, (naupliar eye), and Labidocera madurae (transformed naupliar eyes), and from the double retina compound eye of last-stage stomatopod larvae (Alima pacifica). Similar components to the visual phototransduction cascade of Drosophila melanogaster were identified in all species. Identified visual opsins clustered with long-wavelength sensitive, middle-wavelength sensitive (MWS) and ultraviolet sensitive opsins in A. pacifica, while both copepods expressed only MWS opsins. Non-visual pteropsins were identified in all three species, and one peropsin was found in A. pacifica. Developmental shifts in opsin expression of larval versus adult transcriptomes were identified in both L. madurae and A. pacifica. The molecular components of these unusual eye types supplement the history of crustacean visual evolution.engOpsincrustacean visionphototransductionThesis