title: Photoreceptor cell fate specification in vertebrates.
abstract: Photoreceptors--the light-sensitive cells in the vertebrate retina--have been extremely well-characterized with regards to their biochemistry, cell biology and physiology. They therefore provide an excellent model for exploring the factors and mechanisms that drive neural progenitors into a differentiated cell fate in the nervous system. As a result, great progress in understanding the transcriptional network that controls photoreceptor specification and differentiation has been made over the last 20 years. This progress has also enabled the production of photoreceptors from pluripotent stem cells, thereby aiding the development of regenerative medical approaches to eye disease. In this Review, we outline the signaling and transcription factors that drive vertebrate photoreceptor development and discuss how these function together in gene regulatory networks to control photoreceptor cell fate specification.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, CO 80045, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Brzezinski
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA tomreh@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Reh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000502:physiology*; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D020419:Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate / Q000166:cytology*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000196:embryology*
keywords: Cell fate specification; Competence; Fate potential; Multipotent; Photoreceptor; Retina