Address of Corresponding Author

Dev Neurosci 2004;26:346-351 (DOI: 10.1159/000082276)

  Key Words

• Hedgehog signaling
• Retina
• Neurogenesis
• Axon pathfinding
• Zebrafish
• Development

  Abstract

The vertebrate visual system is a region of the nervous system that is characterized by relative simplicity, and its development has hence been studied intensively, to serve as a paradigm for the rest of the central nervous system. The zebrafish model organism offers an impressive array of tools to dissect this process experimentally, and in recent years has helped to significantly deepen our understanding of the development of the visual system. A number of these studies have focused on the role of the Hedgehog family of secreted signaling molecules in eye development, and this is the main topic of this review. Hedgehog signaling plays an important role in all major steps of visual system development, starting with the regionalization of the eye primordium into proximal and distal territories, continuing with the control of cellular differentiation in the retina, and ending with the guidance of axonal projections from the retina to the optic centers of the brain.

Copyright © 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Carl J. Neumann
EMBL, Developmental Biology Programme
Meyerhofstrasse 1
DE-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
Tel. +49 6221 387186, Fax +49 6221 387306, E-Mail carl.neumann@embl.de

  Article Information

Received: March 8, 2004
Accepted: July 20, 2004
Number of Print Pages : 6
Number of Figures : 2, Number of Tables : 0, Number of References : 45