Journal Article
A 3D molecular map of the cavefish neural plate illuminates eye-field organization and its borders in vertebrates
Agnès, F., Torres-Paz, J., Michel, O. and Rétaux, S.
Record Number:
5998
Year:
2022
Journal:
Development
Pages:
1-14
Volume:
149, dev199966
Abstract:
The vertebrate retinas originate from a specific anlage in the anterior
neural plate called the eye field. Its identity is conferred by a set
of ‘eye transcription factors’, whose combinatorial expression has
been overlooked. Here, we use the dimorphic teleost Astyanax
mexicanus, which develops proper eyes in the wild type and smaller
colobomatous eyes in the blind cavefish embryos, to unravel the
molecular anatomy of the eye field and its variations within a species.
Using a series of markers (rx3, pax6a, cxcr4b, zic1, lhx2, emx3 and
nkx2.1a), we draw a comparative 3D expression map at the end
of gastrulation/onset of neurulation, which highlights hyperregionalization
of the eye field into sub-territories of distinct sizes,
shapes, cell identities and combinatorial gene expression levels
along the three body axes. All these features show significant
variations in the cavefish natural mutant. We also discover subdomains
within the prospective telencephalon and characterize cell
identities at the frontiers of the eye field.We propose putative fates for
some of the characterized eye-field subdivisions, and suggest the
existence of a trade-off between some subdivisions in the two
Astyanax morphs on a micro-evolutionary scale.
KEY WORDS: Eye-field transcription factors, Telencephalon,
Hypothalamus, Cell identity, Astyanax mexicanus, Natural variation
Times Cited:
1
Relevent Species: