Dataset Information

Expression of a Barhl1a reporter in subsets of retinal ganglion cells and commissural neurons of the developing zebrafish brain.

ABSTRACT: Promoting the regeneration or survival of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) is one focus of regenerative medicine. Homeobox Barhl transcription factors might be instrumental in these processes. In mammals, only barhl2 is expressed in the retina and is required for both subtype identity acquisition of amacrine cells and for the survival of RGCs downstream of Atoh7, a transcription factor necessary for RGC genesis. The underlying mechanisms of this dual role of Barhl2 in mammals have remained elusive. Whole genome duplication in the teleost lineage generated the barhl1a and barhl2 paralogues. In the Zebrafish retina, Barhl2 functions as a determinant of subsets of amacrine cells lineally related to RGCs independently of Atoh7. In contrast, barhl1a expression depends on Atoh7 but its expression dynamics and function have not been studied. Here we describe for the first time a Barhl1a reporter line in vivo showing that barhl1a turns on exclusively in subsets of RGCs and their post-mitotic precursors. We also show transient expression of barhl1a:GFP in diencephalic neurons extending their axonal projections as part of the post-optic commissure, at the time of optic chiasm formation. This work sets the ground for future studies on RGC subtype identity, axonal projections and genetic specification of Barhl1a-positive RGCs and commissural neurons.

SUBMITTER: Albadri S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7264323 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Expression of a Barhl1a reporter in subsets of retinal ganglion cells and commissural neurons of the developing zebrafish brain.

Albadri Shahad S Armant Olivier O Aljand-Geschwill Tairi T Del Bene Filippo F Carl Matthias M Strähle Uwe U Poggi Lucia L

Scientific reports 20200601 1

Promoting the regeneration or survival of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) is one focus of regenerative medicine. Homeobox Barhl transcription factors might be instrumental in these processes. In mammals, only barhl2 is expressed in the retina and is required for both subtype identity acquisition of amacrine cells and for the survival of RGCs downstream of Atoh7, a transcription factor necessary for RGC genesis. The underlying mechanisms of this dual role of Barhl2 in mammals have remained elusive. ...[more]

PMID: 32483163

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Project description:The retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) have diverse morphology and physiology. Although some studies show that correlations between morphological properties and physiological properties exist in cat RGCs, these properties are much less distinct and their correlations are unknown in mouse RGCs. In this study, using three-dimensional digital neuron reconstruction, we systematically analyzed twelve morphological parameters of mouse RGCs as they developed in the first four postnatal weeks. The development of these parameters fell into three different patterns and suggested that contact from bipolar cells and eye opening might play important roles in RGC morphological development. Although there has been a general impression that the morphological parameters are not independent, such as RGCs with larger dendritic fields usually have longer but sparser dendrites, there was not systematic study and statistical analysis proving it. We used Pearson's correlation coefficients to determine the relationship among these morphological parameters and demonstrated that many morphological parameters showed high statistical correlation. In the same cells we also measured seven physiological parameters using whole-cell patch-clamp recording, focusing on intrinsic excitability. We previously reported the increase in intrinsic excitability in mouse RGCs during early postnatal development. Here we showed that strong correlations also existed among many physiological parameters that measure the intrinsic excitability. However, Pearson's correlation coefficient revealed very limited correlation across morphological and physiological parameters. In addition, principle component analysis failed to separate RGCs into clusters using combined morphological and physiological parameters. Therefore, despite strong correlations within the morphological parameters and within the physiological parameters, postnatal mouse RGCs had only limited correlation between morphology and physiology. This may be due to developmental immaturity, or to selection of parameters.

Dataset Information

Expression of a Barhl1a reporter in subsets of retinal ganglion cells and commissural neurons of the developing zebrafish brain.

Publications

Expression of a Barhl1a reporter in subsets of retinal ganglion cells and commissural neurons of the developing zebrafish brain.

Similar Datasets

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