Photoreceptor specification in the Drosophila eye

描述（由申请人提供）：人眼由不同组织层和结构中的许多不同类型的细胞组成。在患病或受损的眼睛中，替换有缺陷或缺失的细胞类型的能力具有重要的治疗意义。在这里，视网膜前体细胞需要经过各种发育步骤的引导，以产生所需的细胞类型。该资助旨在了解模型视网膜中细胞规格的过程；发育中的果蝇眼睛研究重点是Notch和RTK信号通路。这两种途径之间的一系列复杂相互作用指定了许多不同的细胞类型，我们的目标是使用各种分子，遗传和组织学技术来了解这两种信号通路如何在细胞中整合和解释，以及这些信息如何指导离散视网膜细胞类型的说明。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The human eye is made from many diverse cell types in various tissue layers and structures. In diseased or damaged eyes the ability to replace defective or absent cell types has major therapeutic importance. Here retinal precursor cells need to be guided through various developmental steps in order to generate the required cell types. This grant aims to understand the processes of cell specification in a model retina; the developing Drosophila eye. The study is focused on the Notch and RTK signaling pathways. A series of complex interactions between these two pathways specify a number of distinct cell types, and we aim to use a variety of molecular, genetic and histological techniques to understand how the two signaling pathways are integrated and interpreted in the cells, and how this information then directs the specification of discrete retinal cell types.