RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Inverse oculomotor responses of achiasmatic mice expressing a transfer-defective Vax1 mutant
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.10.20.346551
DO 10.1101/2020.10.20.346551
A1 Min, Kwang Wook
A1 Kim, Namsuk
A1 Lee, Jae Hoon
A1 Sung, Younghoon
A1 Kim, Museong
A1 Lee, Eun Jung
A1 Kim, Jae-Hyun
A1 Lee, Jaeyoung
A1 Kim, Jong-Myeong
A1 Yang, Jee Myung
A1 Lee, Seung-Hee
A1 Lee, Han-Woong
A1 Kim, Jin Woo
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/20/2020.10.20.346551.abstract
AB In animals that exhibit stereoscopic visual responses, the axons of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) connect to brain areas bilaterally by forming a commissure called the optic chiasm (OC). Ventral anterior homeobox 1 (Vax1) contributes to formation of the OC, acting endogenously in optic pathway cells and exogenously in growing RGC axons. Here, we generated Vax1AA/AA mice expressing the Vax1AA mutant, which is selectively incapable of intercellular transfer. We found that RGC axons cannot take up Vax1AA protein from Vax1AA/AA mouse optic stalk (OS) cells, of which maturation is delayed, and fail to access the midline. Consequently, RGC axons of Vax1AA/AA mice connect exclusively to ipsilateral brain areas, resulting in the loss of stereoscopic vision and the inversed oculomotor responses. Together, our study provides physiological evidence for the necessity of intercellular transfer of Vax1 and the importance of the OC in binocular visual responses.