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Deterministic fate assignment of Müller glia cells in the zebrafish retina suggests a clonal backbone during development
Author(s) -
Rulands Steffen,
IglesiasGonzalez Ana Belen,
Boije Henrik
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1111/ejn.14257
Subject(s) - zebrafish , muller glia , neurogenesis , retina , biology , progenitor cell , microbiology and biotechnology , retinal regeneration , cell fate determination , retinal , neuroscience , cell type , cell , fate mapping , stem cell , anatomy , genetics , botany , transcription factor , gene
The optic cup houses multipotent retinal progenitor cells that proliferate and differentiate to form the mature retina, containing five main types of neurons and a single glial cell type, the Müller cell. Progenitors of the zebrafish optic cup generate clones that vary regarding the number and types of neurons, a process we previously showed could be described by stochastic models. Here, we present data indicating that each retinal progenitor cell, in the 24 hrs post‐fertilization optic cup, is predestined to form a single Müller cell. This striking fate assignment of Müller cells reveals a dual nature of retinal lineages where stochastic mechanisms produce variable numbers of neurons while there is a strong deterministic component governing the formation of glia cells. A possible mechanism for this stereotypic fate assignment could be the maintenance of a clonal backbone during retina development, which would be similar to invertebrate and rodent cortical neurogenesis.