Abstract
The eye primordium arises as a lateral outgrowth of the forebrain, with a transient fissure on the inferior side of the optic cup providing an entry point for developing blood vessels. Incomplete closure of the inferior ocular fissure results in coloboma, a disease characterized by gaps in the inferior eye and recognized as a significant cause of pediatric blindness. Here, we identify eight patients with defects in tissues of the superior eye, a congenital disorder that we term superior coloboma. The embryonic origin of superior coloboma could not be explained by conventional models of eye development, leading us to reanalyze morphogenesis of the dorsal eye. Our studies revealed the presence of the superior ocular sulcus (SOS), a transient division of the dorsal eye conserved across fish, chick, and mouse. Exome sequencing of superior coloboma patients identified rare variants in a Bone Morphogenetic Protein (Bmp) receptor (BMPR1A) and T-box transcription factor (TBX2). Consistent with this, we find sulcus closure defects in zebrafish lacking Bmp signaling or Tbx2b. In addition, loss of dorsal ocular Bmp is rescued by concomitant suppression of the ventral-specific Hedgehog pathway, arguing that sulcus closure is dependent on dorsal-ventral eye patterning cues. The superior ocular sulcus acts as a conduit for blood vessels, with altered sulcus closure resulting in inappropriate connections between the hyaloid and superficial vascular systems. Together, our findings explain the existence of superior coloboma, a congenital ocular anomaly resulting from aberrant morphogenesis of a developmental structure.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e1007246 |
| Journal | PLoS Genetics |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by operating grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR, MOP #126191) and the Women and Children's Health Research Institute (WCHRI, #1706) to AJW and a University of Texas Systems Neuroscience Award (#365133) and a March of Dimes grant (FY16-169) to SA. JCH and JKF were supported by Alberta Innovates - Health Solutions (AIHS) fellowships, SAW and KHY by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures (AITF) scholarships, and SAW and by a WCHRI scholarship. FORGE sequencing was funded by Genome Canada, CIHR, the Ontario Genomic Institute (OGI-049), Genome Quebec, Genome BC and the McLaughlin Centre. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We dedicate this paper to Dr. Antone Jacobson, an emeritus professor from the University of Texas at Austin who kindly provided us with the newt SEM photos, and who recently passed away. During his long career, Antone tackled many profound questions in embryology, using elegantly designed experiments to provide valuable insight. He will be remembered not only for his research, but also as a teacher and mentor to thousands of students. We are grateful to Brian Brooks (National Eye Institute), Louise Allen (University of Cambridge), and Brenda Bohnsack (University of Michigan) for sharing patient information. We thank Peter Carlsson, Sarah Childs, Alison Hardcastle, Sarah McFarlane, Cecilia Moens, and Steve Wilson for comments on the manuscript, Aleah McCorry, Miryam Chacko, Tina Wu, and Maria Choi for fish care and experimental assistance, and Kristin Kwan for the GFP-CAAX construct and W.T. Allison for the fby zebrafish. We thank Andrew Simmonds for granting us access to Imaris software and Anjali Ramchandran for processing some of the chick immunohistochemistry.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Hocking et al.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics
- Genetics(clinical)
- Cancer Research
