RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Specification of the vertebrate eye by a network of eye field transcription factors
JF Development
JO Development
FD The Company of Biologists Limited
SP 5155
OP 5167
DO 10.1242/dev.00723
VO 130
IS 21
A1 Zuber, Michael E.
A1 Gestri, Gaia
A1 Viczian, Andrea S.
A1 Barsacchi, Giuseppina
A1 Harris, William A.
YR 2003
UL http://dev.biologists.org/content/130/21/5155.abstract
AB Several eye-field transcription factors (EFTFs) are expressed in the anterior region of the vertebrate neural plate and are essential for eye formation. The Xenopus EFTFs ET, Rx1, Pax6, Six3, Lhx2, tll and Optx2 are expressed in a dynamic, overlapping pattern in the presumptive eye field. Expression of an EFTF cocktail with Otx2 is sufficient to induce ectopic eyes outside the nervous system at high frequency. Using both cocktail subsets and functional (inductive) analysis of individual EFTFs, we have revealed a genetic network regulating vertebrate eye field specification. Our results support a model of progressive tissue specification in which neural induction then Otx2-driven neural patterning primes the anterior neural plate for eye field formation. Next, the EFTFs form a self-regulating feedback network that specifies the vertebrate eye field. We find striking similarities and differences to the network of homologous Drosophila genes that specify the eye imaginal disc, a finding that is consistent with the idea of a partial evolutionary conservation of eye formation.