Relationship of ocular pigmentation to the boundaries of dorsal and ventral retina in a nonmammalian vertebrate

Abstract

The goldfish eye and retina are partitioned traditionally into dorsal and ventral sectors by a horizontal meridian that passes through the optic disc and is perpendicular to a vertical meridian that extends from the remnant of the choroid fissure through the optic disc. Axons of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) situated above the horizontal meridian are thought to reach the optic tectum via the ventrolateral optic tract and axons of RGCs situated below the horizontal meridian are thought to reach the optic tectum via the dorsomedial optic tract. When cobaltous-lysine was applied to small temporal retinal slits that were centered on the traditional horizontal meridian, filled fibers were found in the dorsomedial, but not in the ventrolateral, optic tract (Springer and Mednick, '83). Since cobalt-filled axons should have been found in both optic tracts, the traditional horizontal meridian does not indicate the actual boundary between dorsal and ventral retina. We report here that the goldfish iris contains nasal and temporal pigmentation lines (darts) that are each located approximately 21 degrees above the traditional horizontal retinal meridian. Cobalt applied to retinal slits located just above the darts filled RGC axons in the ventrolateral optic tract and cobalt applied to retinal slits just below the darts filled RGC axons in the dorsomedial optic tract. Converging evidence for the reliability of the darts as indicators of the boundary between dorsal and ventral retina was obtained by applying cobalt to severed RGC axons along the dorsomedial edge of the tectum. Cobalt-filled RGCs were found below the nasal dart.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)