Somatic gene targeting in the developing and adult mouse retina.
Retinogenesis is a developmental process that is tightly regulated both temporally and spatially and is therefore an excellent model system for studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurogenesis in the central nervous system. Understanding of these events in vivo is greatly facilitated by the availability of mouse mutant models, including those with natural or targeted mutations and those with conditional knockout or forced expression of genes. This article reviews these genetic modifications and their contribution to the study of retinogenesis in mammals, with special emphasis on conditional gene targeting approaches.
Ashery-Padan
Ruth
R
Department of Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel. ruthash@post.tau.ac.il
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D051379:Mice; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains; D012160:Retina / Q000196:embryology* / Q000502:physiology*