Central role for the lens in cave fish eye degeneration

Science

Volumn 289, Issue 5479, 2000, Pages 631-633

  Yamamoto, Yoshiyuki ^a   Jeffery, William R ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; EVOLUTION; EYE DEVELOPMENT; EYE DISEASE; LENS; NONHUMAN; OPTIC DISK CUP; PRIORITY JOURNAL; SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION; TELEOST; TISSUE DEGENERATION; TISSUE TRANSPLANTATION;

ANIMALS; APOPTOSIS; CELL DIFFERENTIATION; DNA-BINDING PROTEINS; EMBRYONIC INDUCTION; EVOLUTION; EYE; EYE PROTEINS; FISHES; HOMEODOMAIN PROTEINS; IN SITU NICK-END LABELING; LENS, CRYSTALLINE; PAIRED BOX TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS; PROLIFERATING CELL NUCLEAR ANTIGEN; REPRESSOR PROTEINS; RETINA; RHODOPSIN;

AMBLYOPSIDAE; ASTYANAX MEXICANUS; TELEOSTEI;

EID: 0034725912     PISSN: 00368075     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5479.631     Document Type: Article

References (21)

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10. Surface fish, originally collected at Balmorhea State Park, TX, and cave fish, collected at Cueva de El Pachón, Tamaulipas, Mexico, were maintained at 25°C on a photoperiod consisting of 14 hours of light and 10 hours of darkness. For lens transplantation or extirpation, 24-hour-old (34-to 38-somite) embryos were washed for 30 min in calcium-free zebrafish ringer (CFZFR) [116 mM NaCl, 2.9 mM KCl, and 10 mM Hepes (pH 7.2)] containing 0.2% EDTA, rinsed in CFZFR (40°C), and embedded in 1.2% agar in CFZFR (40°C). After cooling to room temperature, individual embryos were cut into agarose blocks. The operations were done with sharp tungsten needles in agarose blocks arranged side by side in CFZFR. The host embryos were grown to adults under the normal photoperiod.
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19. Of 31 transplantations, 15 (44%) of the hosts survived. Thirteen (87%) of the survivors showed small degenerate eyes on the transplant side, and the remainder showed no effects on eye development.
20. Our results are relevant only to the Pachón cave fish studied here, one of at least 30 Astyanax cave fish populations that may have evolved the eyeless phenotype by different mechanisms (4, 6).
21. This work was supported by NSF grant DEB 9726561 (to W.R.J.). We thank D. Heyser for technical assistance and K. Kan for discussion of histochemical methods.