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Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Optic Fissure Fusion During Zebrafish Eye Development, Megan Weaver
Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Optic Fissure Fusion During Zebrafish Eye Development, Megan Weaver
Theses and Dissertations--Biology
Vertebrate retinal development requires timely and precise fusion of the optic fissure. Failure of this event leads to congenital vision impairment in the form of coloboma. Recent studies have suggested hyaloid vasculature to be involved in OF fusion. In order to examine this link, we analyzed optic fissure fusion and hyaloid vasculogenesis in the zebrafish pax2a noi mutant line. We first determined that pax2a-/- embryos fail to accumulate F-actin in the optic fissure prior to basement membrane (BM) degradation. Furthermore, using 3D and live imaging we observed reduced OF hyaloid vascularization in pax2a-/- embryos. When examining the connection …