title: An Amacrine Cell Circuit for Signaling Steady Illumination in the Retina.
abstract: Decades of research have focused on the circuit connectivity between retinal neurons, but only a handful of amacrine cells have been described functionally and placed in the context of a specific retinal circuit. Here, we identify a circuit where inhibition from a specific amacrine cell plays a vital role in shaping the feature selectivity of a postsynaptic ganglion cell. We record from transgenically labeled CRH-1 amacrine cells and identify a postsynaptic target for CRH-1 amacrine cell inhibition in an atypical retinal ganglion cell (RGC) in mouse retina, the Suppressed-by-Contrast (SbC) RGC. Unlike other RGC types, SbC RGCs spike tonically in steady illumination and are suppressed by both increases and decreases in illumination. Inhibition from GABAergic CRH-1 amacrine cells shapes this unique contrast response profile to positive contrast. We show the existence and impact of this circuit, with both paired recordings and cell-type-specific ablation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, 60611, USA.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jacoby
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, 60611, USA.
authors.forename: Yongling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, 60611, USA; Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, 60611, USA.
authors.forename: Steven H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: DeVries
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, 60611, USA; Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, 60611, USA. Electronic address: greg.schwartz@northwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Gregory W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Schwartz
mesh_terms: D025042:Amacrine Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D009435:Synaptic Transmission