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The Journal of Neuroscience, December 1, 1998, 18(23):9948-9953
Cell Production and Cell Death in the Generation of Variation in
Neuron Number
Richelle C.
Strom and
Robert W.
Williams
Center for Neuroscience, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology,
University of Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee 38163
Retinal ganglion cell numbers in adult mice vary from 40,000 to
80,000. Much of this variation and the prominent bimodality of strain
averages are generated by allelic variants at the neuron number control
1 (Nnc1) locus on chromosome 11. The
Nnc1 locus may modulate either ganglion cell production
or the severity of ganglion cell death. Here we have determined what
the relative contributions of these two processes are to variation in
adult cell number by estimating total ganglion cell production in 10 strains of mice (A/J, BALB/cJ, BXD32, C57BL/6J, CAST/Ei, CARL/ChGo, CE/J, C3H/HeSnJ, DBA/2J, and LP/J). These strains have adult
populations that range from 45,000 to 76,000 (data available at
http://qtl.ml.org). We estimated cell production by counting ganglion
cell axons after ganglion cell neurogenesis but before the onset of
significant cell death. Total cell production ranges from 131,000 to
224,000, and most of the variation in adult ganglion cell number is
explained by this significant variation in cell production. In
contrast, the percentage of cell death is relatively uniform in most
strains (~69% cell loss). The exceptions are BXD32, a strain that
has an extremely high adult cell population, and Mus
caroli (CARL/ChGo), a wild southeast Asian species that is
distantly related to laboratory strains. In BXD32 and M.
caroli, ~62% of the population dies. Our analysis indicates
that substitutions of single alleles at the Nnc1 locus
are responsible for production differences of ~8000 ganglion cells.
Key words:
neurogenesis; cell death; genetic variation; Nnc1; retinal ganglion cell; strain variation; retinal
development
Copyright © 1998 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/98/18239948-06$05.00/0
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