In establishing circuits in the retina, retinal neurons form complex patterns depending on repulsion or attraction to their own processes, and to the cell bodies and processes of other neurons. The first cell surface adhesive protein that mediates this cell spacing in the mammalian retinal is described. This paper also identifies a spontaneous mutation in mice that creates a loss of function allele of Dscam, which in Drosophila mediates dendrite arborization and axon tiling, and finds the mutants eyes had disorganized retinas with faulty cell spacing.
- Peter G. Fuerst
- Amane Koizumi
- Robert W. Burgess
