Developmental analysis of the cone photoreceptor-less little skate retina.

ABSTRACT: The retinal development of elasmobranchs--the superclass comprising sharks, skates and rays--is a poorly understood phenomenon. The clade is diverse in retinal phenotypes, with many sharks and rays possessing rods and multiple cone types. In contrast, the little skate (Leucoraja erinacea) has only a single type of rod photoreceptor, which is reported to have taken on some physiological and anatomical properties of cones. How does the little skate develop this photoreceptor system? To investigate this question, we identified an early stage of embryonic photoreceptor formation based on Otx2 expression. To assess whether cone photoreceptor gene regulatory networks regulated by the Onecut1 transcription factor were intact we developed an electroporation approach. Activation of a Onecut1

SUBMITTER: Rangachar CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12324554 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature