First Author | Glendining KA | Year | 2017 |
Journal | BMC Neurosci | Volume | 18 |
Issue | 1 | Pages | 78 |
PubMed ID | 29207951 | Mgi Jnum | J:277016 |
Mgi Id | MGI:6296306 | Doi | 10.1186/s12868-017-0397-5 |
Citation | Glendining KA, et al. (2017) Downstream mediators of Ten-m3 signalling in the developing visual pathway. BMC Neurosci 18(1):78 |
abstractText | BACKGROUND: The formation of visuotopically-aligned projections in the brain is required for the generation of functional binocular circuits. The mechanisms which underlie this process are unknown. Ten-m3 is expressed in a broad high-ventral to low-dorsal gradient across the retina and in topographically-corresponding gradients in primary visual centres. Deletion of Ten-m3 causes profound disruption of binocular visual alignment and function. Surprisingly, one of the most apparent neuroanatomical changes-dramatic mismapping of ipsilateral, but not contralateral, retinal axons along the representation of the nasotemporal retinal axis-does not correlate well with Ten-m3's expression pattern, raising questions regarding mechanism. The aim of this study was to further our understanding of the molecular interactions which enable the formation of functional binocular visual circuits. METHODS: Anterograde tracing, gene expression studies and protein pull-down experiments were performed. Statistical significance was tested using a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, pairwise-fixed random reallocation tests and univariate ANOVAs. RESULTS: We show that the ipsilateral retinal axons in Ten-m3 knockout mice are mismapped as a consequence of early axonal guidance defects. The aberrant invasion of the ventral-most region of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus by ipsilateral retinal axons in Ten-m3 knockouts suggested changes in the expression of other axonal guidance molecules, particularly members of the EphA-ephrinA family. We identified a consistent down-regulation of EphA7, but none of the other EphA-ephrinA genes tested, as well as an up-regulation of ipsilateral-determinants Zic2 and EphB1 in visual structures. We also found that Zic2 binds specifically to the intracellular domain of Ten-m3 in vitro. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that Zic2, EphB1 and EphA7 molecules may work as effectors of Ten-m3 signalling, acting together to enable the wiring of functional binocular visual circuits. |