Like many neural circuits, the vertebrate retina is organised into laminae. But how are neurites targeted to the correct synaptic layer during retinal development? Kay et al. use a powerful combination of in vivo confocal imaging and genetic manipulation to study the inner plexiform layer (IPL) of the zebrafish retina (see p. 1331). The IPL contains post-synaptic retinal ganglion cells (RGCs)and their pre-synaptic partners, the amacrine cells and bipolar cells, and is subdivided into ON and OFF sublaminae that respond differently to illumination. The researchers study IPL development in real time by labelling amacrine cell subsets with GFP in a zebrafish mutant in which RGCs never form. IPL formation was delayed and disorganised in the absence of RGCs, but the early neurite projection errors were later corrected to produce a near-normal IPL. Thus, while RGCs have a transient role in organising the earliest amacrine cell projections, interactions between amacrine cells are sufficient to form the IPL and its sublayers.
Lay(er)ing down the retina
Lay(er)ing down the retina. Development 15 March 2004; 131 (6): e603. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.