Retinal ganglion cells in the Pacific redfin, Tribolodon brandtii dybowski, 1872: Morphology and diversity

Abstract

We studied the morphology and diversity of retinal ganglion cells in the Pacific redfin, Tribolodon brandtii. These cells were retrogradely labeled with horseradish peroxidase and examined in retinal whole mounts. A sample of 203 cells was drawn with a camera lucida. A total of 19 structural parameters were estimated for each cell, and a variety of clustering algorithms were used to classify the cells. The optimal solution was determined by using silhouette analysis. It was based on three variables associated with dendritic field size and dendrite stratification in the retina. Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA-on-ranks with post hoc Mann-Whitney U tests showed significant pairwise between-cluster differences in two or more of the original variables. In total, eight cell types were discovered. The advantages and drawbacks of the methodology adopted are discussed. The present classification is compared with classifications proposed for other teleosts.