True S-cones are concentrated in the ventral mouse retina and wired for color detection in the upper visual field
- National Eye Institute (NIH), United States
Abstract
Color, an important visual cue for survival, is encoded by comparing signals from photoreceptors with different spectral sensitivities. The mouse retina expresses a short wavelength-sensitive and a middle/long wavelength-sensitive opsin (S- and M-opsin), forming opposing, overlapping gradients along the dorsal-ventral axis. Here, we analyzed the distribution of all cone types across the entire retina for two commonly used mouse strains. We found, unexpectedly, that 'true S-cones' (S-opsin only) are highly concentrated (up to 30% of cones) in ventral retina. Moreover, S-cone bipolar cells (SCBCs) are also skewed towards ventral retina, with wiring patterns matching the distribution of true S-cones. In addition, true S-cones in the ventral retina form clusters, which may augment synaptic input to SCBCs. Such a unique true S-cone and SCBC connecting pattern forms a basis for mouse color vision, likely reflecting evolutionary adaption to enhance color coding for the upper visual field suitable for mice's habitat and behavior.
Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files
Article and author information
Author details
Francisco M Nadal-Nicolás
Funding
National Eye Institute (Intramural Research Program)
- Wei Li
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Fred Rieke, University of Washington, United States
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All experiments and animal care are conducted in accordance with protocols approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the National Institutes of Health and following the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology guidelines for the use of animals in research. The protocol was approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the National Institutes of Health (ASP#606).
Version history
- Received: March 12, 2020
- Accepted: May 28, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: May 28, 2020 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: June 22, 2020 (version 2)
Copyright
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
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True S-cones are concentrated in the ventral mouse retina and wired for color detection in the upper visual field
eLife 9:e56840.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56840
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