title: Zebrafish N-cadherin, encoded by the glass onion locus, plays an essential role in retinal patterning.
abstract: Genetic screens in zebrafish identified several loci that play essential roles in the patterning of retinal architecture. Here, we show that one of them, glass onion, encodes the N-cadherin gene. The glo(m117) mutant allele contains a substitution of the Trp2 residue known for its essential role in the adhesive properties of classic cadherins. Both the glo(m117) and pac(tm101b) mutant N-cadherin alleles affect the polarity of the retinal neuroepithelial sheet and, unexpectedly, both result in cell-nonautonomous phenotypes in retinal patterning. The late onset of mutant N-cadherin phenotypes may be due to the ability of classic cadherins to substitute each other's function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA. jarema_malicki@meei.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Jarema
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Malicki
authors.forename: Hakryul
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jo
authors.forename: Zac
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Pujic
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D015820:Cadherins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D005260:Female; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D012160:Retina / Q000196:embryology*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology*
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins