Identification of genes expressed preferentially in the developing peripheral margin of the optic cup

Abstract

Specification of the peripheral optic cup by Wnt signaling is critical for formation of the ciliary body/iris. Identification of marker genes for this region during development provides a starting point for functional analyses. During transcriptional profiling of single cells from the developing eye, two cells were identified that expressed genes not found in most other single cell profiles. In situ hybridizations demonstrated that many of these genes were expressed in the peripheral optic cup in both early mouse and chicken development, and in the ciliary body/iris at subsequent developmental stages. These analyses indicate that the two cells probably originated from the developing ciliary body/iris. Changes in expression of these genes were assayed in embryonic chicken retinas when canonical Wnt signaling was ectopically activated by CA-␤-catenin. Twelve ciliary body/iris genes were identified as upregulated following induction, suggesting they are excellent candidates for downstream effectors of Wnt signaling in the optic cup. Developmental

Combinatorial regulation of optic cup progenitor cell fate by SOX2 and PAX6

“…2A,C, box), where Msx1 (Liu et al, 2006), Otx1 (Simeone et al, 1992), Bmp4 (Zhao et al, 2002) (Fig. 2J,K,L) and Zic1 (data not shown) (Trimarchi et al, 2009) were preferentially expressed. PAX6 was highly maintained in the prospective CE (Fig.…”

Single-cell Profiling of Developing and Mature Retinal Neurons

“…Since the retina is such a mixture of cell types, microarray and serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) based studies [17][18][19] that relied on the homogenization of the entire retina are unable to uncover markers genes expressed in rare subtypes and unable to resolve dynamic gene expression differences between cell types, especially during development. To begin to understand the complexity of different cell types both in the adult retina and during retinal development, the single cell gene expression profiles of~200 individual cells from many different time points have been analyzed [2][3][4][5]8 . The resulting data has provided a host of new markers for individual cell types and provided a window into important transitions in developmental time that were previously unappreciated.…”

Generation of a ciliary margin-like stem cell niche from self-organizing human retinal tissue

“…In the chick embryo, the stem cell system at the CM also plays an active role during eye development, and stem cells isolated from this region can form NR tissue in floating aggregate culture 13 . The mammalian foetal eye also contains a peripheral NR zone resembling the chick embryonic CM in molecular marker expression, and this zone contains a substantial number of stem cells 10,14,15 (Hereafter, these cells are referred to as 'CM stem cells'). The presence of a small number of retinal stem cells at the ciliary region in the adult mammalian eye has also been reported [16][17][18][19][20] , although the extent of their in vivo contribution to the maintenance and regeneration of adult retinal tissue remains elusive.…”