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Ocular coloboma and dorsoventral neuroretinal patterning defects in Lrp6 mutant eyes
Author(s) -
Zhou ChengJi,
Molotkov Andrei,
Song Lanying,
Li Yunhong,
Pleasure David E.,
Pleasure Samuel J.,
Wang YaZhou
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
developmental dynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.634
H-Index - 141
eISSN - 1097-0177
pISSN - 1058-8388
DOI - 10.1002/dvdy.21770
Subject(s) - coloboma , biology , retinoic acid , wnt signaling pathway , microbiology and biotechnology , optic cup (embryology) , mutant , anatomy , signal transduction , eye development , genetics , gene , phenotype
Coloboma, an ocular birth defect seen in humans and other species, is caused by incomplete closure of the optic fissure. Here, we demonstrate that genetic deletion of Lrp6, a bottleneck coreceptor in the canonical Wnt signaling pathway, results in ocular coloboma and neuroretinal patterning defects in mice. The expression of ventral neuroretinal patterning gene Vax2 was conserved but with dorsally shifted expression domains; however, the dorsal neuroretinal patterning gene Tbx5 was lost in the Lrp6‐mutant eyes at embryonic day 10.5. Both Bmp4 and phosphorylated Smad 1/5/8 were also significantly attenuated in the dorsal neuroretina. In addition, the retinoic acid synthesizing enzymes Raldh1 and Raldh3 were significantly changed in the mutant eyes. Our findings suggest that defective retinal patterning causes coloboma in the Lrp6‐deficient mice, and that canonical Wnt signaling plays a primary role in dorsal neuroretinal patterning and related morphogenetic movements by regulation of both Bmp and retinoic acid signaling pathways. Developmental Dynamics 237:3681–3689, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.