Retina: The control of photoreceptor cell fate

描述（由申请人提供）：了解图案和维持人眼的信号传导机制对医学界至关重要。相当多的工作是针对理解发生在脊椎动物眼中的模式形成，小鼠是标准的模式生物。虽然完全出乎意料，但在过去的10年里，苍蝇眼睛与脊椎动物眼睛的许多结构和图案特征越来越明显。因此，果蝇可以被认为是研究脊椎动物眼睛发育的另一种模式生物。本实验室的工作研究了直接围绕果蝇视网膜的组织的信号如何诱导功能眼睛所需的周边专业化。最近，同样的现象也发生在老鼠身上，使用的是同一类信号分子。在这里，来自直接邻近视网膜的组织的Wnt信号指导睫状体和虹膜的形成。我们的目标是详细研究蝇眼产生周边特化的模式机制。我们将使用苍蝇遗传学，分子生物学，组织学和生物化学来确定组织外周专业化释放的信号的确切性质。我们将阐明在外周区域特异性开启的基因或蛋白质，以及它们如何相互作用以指导特化结构的分化。这项工作的结果可以在小鼠中进行检查，以进一步了解视网膜分化及其对人类疾病和视力的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Understanding the signaling mechanisms that pattern and maintain the human eye are critically important to the medical community. A considerable amount of work is directed to understanding the pattern formation that occurs in the vertebrate eye, with the mouse being the standard model organism. Although completely unexpected, over the last 10 years it has become increasingly evident that the fly eye shares many structural and patterning features with the vertebrate eye. Thus, the fly can be considered another model organism for studying vertebrate eye development. Work in this lab has examined how signals from the tissue directly surrounding fly retina induce peripheral specializations necessary for the functioning eye. Recently, the same phenomenon was shown to occur in the mouse, using the same class of signaling molecules. Here, Wnt signals from the tissue directly adjacent to the retina direct the formation of the ciliary body and the iris. Our goals here are to examine in fine detail the patterning mechanisms by which the peripheral specializations are produced in the fly eye. We will use fly genetics, molecular biology, histology and biochemistry to determine the exact nature of the signals released that organize the peripheral specializations. We will elucidate the genes or proteins that are specifically turned on in the peripheral regions, and how they interact to direct the differentiation of the specialized structures. The results accruing from this work can then be taken and examined in the mouse to further our general understanding of retinal differentiation and its implications for human disease and vision.