Published 19 December 2005. doi:10.1083/jcb.200509098
The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525 $8.00
JCB, Volume 171, Number 6, 991-999
Influences on neural lineage and mode of division in the zebrafish retina in vivo
Lucia Poggi1,
Marta Vitorino1,
Ichiro Masai2, and
William A. Harris1
1 Department of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DY, United Kingdom
2 RIKEN Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Hirosawa, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
Correspondence to William A. Harris: harris{at}mole.bio.cam.ac.uk
Cell determination in the retina has been under intense investigation since the discovery that retinal progenitors generate clones of apparently random composition (Price, J., D. Turner, and C. Cepko. 1987. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 84:156160; Holt, C.E., T.W. Bertsch, H.M. Ellis, and W.A. Harris. 1988. Neuron. 1:1526; Wetts, R., and S.E. Fraser. 1988. Science. 239:11421145). Examination of fixed tissue, however, sheds little light on lineage patterns or on the relationship between the orientation of division and cell fate. In this study, three-dimensional time-lapse analyses were used to trace lineages of retinal progenitors expressing green fluorescent protein under the control of the ath5 promoter. Surprisingly, these cells divide just once along the circumferential axis to produce two postmitotic daughters, one of which becomes a retinal ganglion cell (RGC). Interestingly, when these same progenitors are transplanted into a mutant environment lacking RGCs, they often divide along the central-peripheral axis and produce two RGCs. This study provides the first insight into reproducible lineage patterns of retinal progenitors in vivo and the first evidence that environmental signals influence the orientation of cell division and the lineage of neural progenitors.
Abbreviations used in this paper: 3D, three dimensional; GAP, growth-associated protein; GCL, ganglion cell layer; INL, inner nuclear layer; ONL, outer nuclear layer; RGC, retinal ganglion cell.

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