Obtaining a parts list of the sensory components of the retina is vital to understand the effects of light in behavior, health, and disease. Rods, cones, and intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) are the best described photoreceptors in the mammalian retina, but recent functional roles have been proposed for retinal neuropsin (Opn5)-an atypical opsin. However, little is known about the pattern of Opn5 expression in the retina. Using cre (Opn5 cre ) and cre-dependent reporters, we uncover patterns of Opn5 expression and find that Opn5 is restricted to retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Opn5-RGCs are nonhomogenously distributed through the retina, with greater densities of cells located in the dorsotemporal quadrant. In addition to the local topology of these cells, using cre-dependent AAV viral tracing, we surveyed their central targets and found that they are biased towards image-forming and image-stabilizing regions. Finally, molecular and electrophysiological profiling reveal that Opn5-RGCs comprise previously defined RGC types that respond optimally to edges and objectmotion (F-mini-ONs, HD2, HD1, LEDs, ooDSRGCs, etc.). Together, these data describe the second collection of RGCs that express atypical opsins in the mouse, and expand the roles of image-forming cells in retinal physiology and function.
INTRODUCTIONRetinal ganglion cells (RGCs) comprise a diverse collection of 45 or more projection neuron types that link retinal events, such as theThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.