On and Off Retinal Circuit Assembly by Divergent Molecular Mechanisms

Lu O. Sun, Zheng Jiang, Michal Rivlin-Etzion, Randal Hand, Colleen M. Brady, Ryota L. Matsuoka, King-Wai Yau, Marla B. Feller, Alex L. Kolodkin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Direction-selective responses to motion can be to the onset (On) or cessation (Off) of illumination. Here, we show that the transmembrane protein semaphorin 6A and its receptor plexin A2 are critical for achieving radially symmetric arborization of On starburst amacrine cell (SAC) dendrites and normal SAC stratification in the mouse retina. Plexin A2 is expressed in both On and Off SACs; however, semaphorin 6A is expressed in On SACs. Specific On-Off bistratified direction- selective ganglion cells in semaphorin 6A(-/-) mutants exhibit decreased tuning of On directional motion responses. These results correlate the elaboration of symmetric SAC dendritic morphology and asymmetric responses to motion, shedding light on the development of visual pathways that use the same cell types for divergent outputs.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1241974
Pages (from-to)590-599
Number of pages10
JournalScience
Volume342
Issue number6158
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2013

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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