Regulation of opsin expression in the retina of salmonid fishes

本研究拟利用细胞培养和鲑科鱼类作为模式生物，研究视觉色素蛋白（opsin）在脊椎动物视网膜中表达的转录机制。这些动物经历了视蛋白表达的自然开关，可以通过外源暴露于甲状腺激素（脊椎动物发育过程中的关键分子）人为诱导。本研究的重点是揭示甲状腺激素、视黄酸及其各自的核受体在发育和成熟（分化）视网膜中控制视蛋白表达的作用机制。由于核激素受体及其配体（如甲状腺激素、视黄酸）参与了许多基本的发育过程，因此本文提出的研究在发育生物学的许多领域具有广泛的适用性。此外，由于视蛋白的表达决定了动物的视觉能力，因此这项研究对于理解光感受器的可塑性以及脊椎动物视网膜中视锥马赛克颜色组织背后的功能原因具有重要意义。

The research proposed examines transcriptional mechanisms of visual pigment protein (opsin) expression in the vertebrate retina using cell cultures, and salmonid fishes as model organisms. These animals undergo natural switches in opsin expression that can be artificially induced by exogenous exposure to thyroid hormone, a crucial molecule during vertebrate development. The proposed research focuses on unraveling the mechanisms of action of thyroid hormone, retinoic acid and their respective nuclear receptors in controlling opsin expression during development and in the mature (differentiated) retina. Because nuclear hormone receptors and their ligands (e.g. thyroid hormone, retinoic acid) are involved in many fundamental processes of development, the research proposed here has wide applicability to many areas of developmental biology. As well, because opsin expression dictates the visual capabilities of an animal, this research is of fundamental importance to understand photoreceptor plasticity and the functional reasons behind the chromatic organization of cone mosaics in the vertebrate retina.