title: Phospholipase C beta 4 is involved in modulating the visual response in mice.
abstract: Expression of G protein-regulated phospholipase C (PLC) beta 4 in the retina, lateral geniculate nucleus, and superior colliculus implies that PLC beta 4 may play a role in the mammalian visual process. A mouse line that lacks PLC beta 4 was generated and the physiological significance of PLC beta 4 in murine visual function was investigated. Behavioral tests using a shuttle box demonstrated that the mice lacking PLC beta 4 were impaired in their visual processing abilities, whereas they showed no deficit in their auditory abilities. In addition, the PLC beta 4-null mice showed 4-fold reduction in the maximal amplitude of the rod a- and b-wave components of their electroretinograms relative to their littermate controls. However, recording from single rod photoreceptors did not reveal any significant differences between the PLC beta 4-null and wild-type littermates, nor were there any apparent differences in retinas examined with light microscopy. While the behavioral and electroretinographic results indicate that PLC beta 4 plays a significant role in mammalian visual signal processing, isolated rod recording shows little or no apparent deficit, suggesting that the effect of PLC beta 4 deficiency on the rod signaling pathway occurs at some stage after the initial phototransduction cascade and may require cell-cell interactions between rods and other retinal cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, University of Rochester, NY 14642, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lyubarsky
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dodd
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vardi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pugh
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baylor
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009154:Mutation; D054799:Phospholipase C beta; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology / Q000502:physiology*; D010738:Type C Phospholipases / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000201:enzymology / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D007527:Isoenzymes; D010738:Type C Phospholipases; D054799:Phospholipase C beta; C518043:Plcb4 protein, mouse