Conference Paper
Blind cavefish retain functional connectivity in the tectum despite loss of retinal input
Lloyd, E., McDole, B., Privat, M., Jaggard, J.B., Duboué, E., Sumbre, G. and Keene, A.
Record Number:
5640
Year:
2022
Journal:
AIM 2022
Pages:
44
Abstract:
Sensory systems display remarkable plasticity and are under strong evolutionary
selection. The Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus, consists of eyed river-dwelling
surface populations, and multiple independent cave populations which have converged on eye loss, providing the opportunity to examine the evolution of sensory circuits in response to environmental perturbation. Functional analysis across multiple transgenic
populations expressing GCaMP6s showed that functional connectivity of the optic tectum
largely did not differ between populations, except for the selective loss of negatively
correlated activity within the cavefish tectum, suggesting positively correlated neural activity is resistant to an evolved loss of input from the retina. Further, analysis of surfacecave hybrid fish reveals that changes in the tectum are genetically distinct from those encoding eye-loss. Together, these findings uncover the independent evolution of multiple components of the visual system and establish the use of functional imaging in A. mexicanus to study neural circuit evolution.
Times Cited:
1
Relevent Species: