Transcriptomic comparison of two selective retinal cell ablation paradigms in zebrafish reveals shared and cell-specific regenerative responses

by Kevin Emmerich, Steven L. Walker, Guohua Wang, David T. White, Anneliese Ceisel, Fang Wang, Yong Teng, Zeeshaan Chunawala, Gianna Graziano, Saumya Nimmagadda, Meera T. Saxena, Jiang Qian, Jeff S. Mumm Retinal M üller glia (MG) can act as stem-like cells to generate new neurons in both zebrafish and mice. In zebrafish, retinal regeneration is innate and robust, resulting in the replacement of lost neurons and restoration of visual function. In mice, exogenous stimulation of MG is required to reveal a dorma nt and, to date, limited regenerative capacity. Zebrafish studies have been key in revealing factors that promote regenerative responses in the mammalian eye. Increased understanding of how the regenerative potential of MG is regulated in zebrafish may therefore aid efforts to promote retinal repair therapeutically. Developmental signaling pathways are known to coordinate regeneration following widespread retinal cell loss. In contrast, less is known about how regeneration is regulated in the context of retinal degenerative disease, i.e., following the loss of specific retinal cell types. To a ddress this knowledge gap, we compared transcriptomic responses underlying regeneration following targeted loss of rod photoreceptors or bipolar cells. In total, 2,531 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, with the majority being paradigm specific, including during early MG activati on phases, suggesting the nature of the injury/cell loss informs the regenerative ...
Source: PLoS Genetics - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Source Type: research