An Invertebrate-like Phototransduction Cascade Mediates Light Detection in the Chicken Retinal Ganglion Cells

CONTIN MA; VERRA DM; GUIDO ME

FEDERATION AMER SOC EXP BIOL

Año: 2006 vol. 20 p. 2648 - 2648

p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal">Pre-bilaterian animals perceived ambient light through non-visual rhabdomeric photoreceptors (RPs), which evolved as support of the chordate visual system. In vertebrates, the identity of non-visual photoreceptors and the phototransduction cascade involved in non-image forming tasks remain uncertain. We investigated whether chicken retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) could be non-visual photoreceptors, and the nature of the photo-cascade involved. We found that primary cultures of chicken embryonic RGCs express such RP markers as transcription factors Pax6 and Brn3, phot