Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Science Policy Alerts

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 22 September 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5487, pp. 2137 - 2139
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5487.2137
Prev | Table of Contents

Reports

Patterning of the Zebrafish Retina by a Wave of Sonic Hedgehog Activity

Carl J. Neumann,* Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard

The Drosophila retina is patterned by a morphogenetic wave driven by the Hedgehog signaling protein. Hedgehog, secreted by the first neurons, induces neuronal differentiation and hedgehog expression in nearby uncommitted cells, thereby propagating the wave. Evidence is presented here that the zebrafish Hedgehog homolog, Sonic Hedgehog, is also expressed in the first retinal neurons, and that Sonic Hedgehog drives a wave of neurogenesis across the retina, strikingly similar to the wave in Drosophila. The conservation of this patterning mechanism is unexpected, given the highly divergent structures of vertebrate and invertebrate eyes, and supports a common evolutionary origin of the animal visual system.

Max-Planck Institut fuer Entwicklungsbiologie, Spemannstrasse 35/III, D-72076 Tuebingen, Germany.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: carl.neumann{at}tuebingen.mpg.de

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)