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In some cases, the offspring of mated pairs originating from distinct cave populations regain vision, researchers found. The result shows that mutations in different genes are responsible for eye loss in separate cavefish lineages that may not have been exposed to light for the last one million years.

"Evolution has many ways to accomplish the same end result, which in the case of cave fish is blindness," said NYU Biology Professor Richard Borowsky, the study's lead author. "For this reason, the genes that are mutated in one population that lead to blindness are different in other, independently evolved populations. Thus, when you cross them, the genetic deficiencies in one lineage are compensated for by strengths in the other, and vice-versa."