Abstract
The molecular bases of vertebrate eye formation have been extensively investigated during the past 20 years. This has resulted in the definition of the backbone of the gene regulatory networks controlling the different steps of eye development and has further highlighted a substantial conservation of these networks among vertebrates. Yet, the precise morphogenetic events allowing the formation of the optic cup from a small group of cells within the anterior neural plate are still poorly understood. It is also unclear if the morphogenetic events leading to eyes of very similar shape are indeed comparable among all vertebrates or if there are any species-specific peculiarities. Improved imaging techniques have enabled to follow how the eye forms in living embryos of a few vertebrate models, whereas the development of organoid cultures has provided fascinating tools to recapitulate tissue morphogenesis of other less accessible species. Here, we will discuss what these advances have taught us about eye morphogenesis, underscoring possible similarities and differences among vertebrates. We will also discuss the contribution of cell shape changes to this process and how morphogenetic and patterning mechanisms integrate to assemble the final architecture of the eye.
Highlights
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Neurogenesis, a section of the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience
The molecular bases of vertebrate eye formation have been extensively investigated during the past 20 years. This has resulted in the definition of the backbone of the gene regulatory networks controlling the different steps of eye development and has further highlighted a substantial conservation of these networks among vertebrates
It is unclear if the morphogenetic events leading to eyes of very similar shape are comparable among all vertebrates or if there are any species-specific peculiarities
Summary
Juan-Ramon Martinez-Morales 1, Florencia Cavodeassi 2, 3 and Paola Bovolenta 2, 3*. Reviewed by: Jin Woo Kim, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea. The precise morphogenetic events allowing the formation of the optic cup from a small group of cells within the anterior neural plate are still poorly understood It is unclear if the morphogenetic events leading to eyes of very similar shape are comparable among all vertebrates or if there are any species-specific peculiarities. The multi-branched evolutionary history behind the emergence of visual organs from an ancestral prototypic eye has attracted the attention of researchers in the evo-devo field, converting the eye to an excellent tool for morphological and molecular evolutionary studies (Arendt, 2003; Letelier et al, 2017) The latter have helped to understand the logic of their gene regulatory networks and have established that vertebrate eye formation depends on the reiterative use of a core set of regulatory molecules highly conserved among invertebrates and vertebrates (Fuhrmann, 2010; Beccari et al, 2013). Old morphological studies based on static images together with more recent molecular studies have established that eye formation starts with the specification of eye field within the anterior neural plate (ANP), followed by their lateral protrusion to form the optic vesicles, and the infolding of the vesicles into bi-layered optic cups (Hilfer, 1983; Schmitt and Dowling, 1994; Li et al, 2000; Kwan et al, 2012)
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