Transcriptome analysis of the retina 英文参考文献.docVIP

/2002/3/8/reviews/1022.1 Minireview Transcriptome analysis of the retina Anand Swaroop* and Donald J Zack? Addresses: *Departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Science and Human Genetics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48105, USA. ?Departments of Ophthalmology, Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. Correspondence: Anand Swaroop. E-mail: swaroop@ Published: 30 July 2002 GenomeBiology 2002, 3(8):reviews1022.1–1022.4 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at /2002/3/8/reviews/1022 ? BioMed Central Ltd (Print ISSN 1465-6906; Online ISSN 1465-6914) Abstract The retina offers unique opportunities to define the molecular and cellular pathways mediating neuronal function and disease because of its morphological complexity, well-defined role in visual transduction and the availability of mutants. These investigations are being greatly facilitated by the ongoing identification of genes expressed in the retina using high-throughput methods. The retina of the eye, a specialized region of the central nervous system in which over 50 different neuronal and glial cell types are arrayed in a highly organized laminar structure, has been at the forefront of neuroscience research for over a century [1]. In his 1906 Nobel lecture, Santiago Ramón y Cajal described “the connexions of the visual fibres and the cells of the retina” with beautiful precision and clarity [2]. The neural retina is responsible for photoreception and for the initial stages of visual processing and integration, and the adjoining retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) provides support for its integrity, function and survival [3] (Figure 1). The exquisite anatomical and functional differentiation of retinal neurons and RPE cells can be explained, at least in part, by their pattern of gene expression, their