“…This group includes several proteins that play a role in eye morphogenesis in Drosophila and humans ( Jukam and Desplan, 2011 ; Mahato et al, 2018 ; Marrone et al, 2011a ; Ray et al, 2020 ). Moreover, these factors are not only associated with various ocular dystrophies but also involved in cancer development and regulation of stem cell maintenance and differentiation, cell growth, and metabolism ( Cehajic-Kapetanovic et al, 2019 ; Collison et al, 2019 ; Jamal et al, 2020 ; Lu et al, 2019 ; Priedigkeit et al, 2021 ; Wu et al, 2020 ). For example, in Drosophila, prominin (Prom), a homolog of human CD133, maintains mitochondrial function, regulates body size and weight, and influences animal longevity by controlling insulin and TOR signaling ( Ryu et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2019 ; Zheng et al, 2019 ).…”