Sayak Biswas, Amity University, Kolkata
Visual information is collected by the animals with the help of photoreceptors that are present in the retina. These visual signals are transferred to the brain through the retinal ganglion cells or the RCGs. In several binocular animals, the RCG axons are connected both to the ipsilateral and contralateral side of the brain. A middle structure is formed by the RCG axons called the optic chasm.
Vax1 is mainly developed by those specific cells which interact with the RCG axons of the developing mouse. Heparin sulphate sugar chains of HSPGs helps to bind the Vax1 to the RCG axons. This ventral anterior homeobox or Vax1 helps to form the optic chasm. It acts endogenously in the optic pathway cells and exogenously in growing RGC axons. This study showed that the axons of RCG cannot take up the Vax1AA protein from the Vax1AA/AA cells of mouse optic stalk.
This delays the maturation. Along with this, there is a loss of the stereoscopic vision and the oculomotor responses which are inversed as the axons of RCG of the Vax1AA/A mice link to the ipsilateral area of the brain. Thus, this study helps to prove the physiological evidence for the necessity of intercellular transfer of Vax1.
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REFERENCE: Min, K. W., Kim, N., Lee, J. H., Sung, Y., Kim, M., Lee, E. J., … & Lee, S. H. (2020). Inverse oculomotor responses of achiasmatic mice expressing a transfer-defective Vax1 mutant. bioRxiv.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.20.346551v1.full
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