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The Journal of Neuroscience, October 22, 2008, 28(43):11015-11023; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2478-08.2008

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Development/Plasticity/Repair
Roles of Ephrin-As and Structured Activity in the Development of Functional Maps in the Superior Colliculus

Jianhua Cang,¹ Lupeng Wang,¹ Michael P. Stryker,² and David A. Feldheim³

¹Department of Neurobiology and Physiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, ²Department of Physiology, W. M. Keck Foundation Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143-0444, and ³Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California 95064

Correspondence should be addressed to Jianhua Cang at the above address. Email: cang{at}northwestern.edu

The orderly projections from retina to superior colliculus (SC) preserve a continuous retinotopic representation of the visual world. The development of retinocollicular maps depend on a combination of molecular guidance cues and patterned neural activity. Here, we characterize the functional retinocollicular maps in mice lacking the guidance molecules ephrin-A2, -A3, and -A5 and in mice deficient in both ephrin-As and structured spontaneous retinal activity, using a method of Fourier imaging of intrinsic signals. We find that the SC of ephrin-A2/A3/A5 triple knock-out mice contains functional maps that are disrupted selectively along the nasotemporal (azimuth) axis of the visual space. These maps are discontinuous, with patches of SC responding to topographically incorrect locations. The patches disappear in mice that are deficient in both ephrin-As and structured activity, resulting in a near-absence of azimuth map in the SC. These results indicate that ephrin-As guide the formation of functional topography in the SC, and patterned retinal activity clusters cells based on their correlated firing patterns. Comparison of the SC and visual cortical mapping defects in these mice suggests that although ephrin-As are required for mapping in both SC and visual cortex, ephrin-A-independent mapping mechanisms are more important in visual cortex than in the SC.

Key words: visual system; topography; axonal guidance; optical imaging; chemoaffinity; retinal waves

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Received May 9, 2008; revised Aug. 15, 2008; accepted Sept. 10, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Jianhua Cang at the above address. Email: cang{at}northwestern.edu

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. Wang, K. V. Rangarajan, C. A. Lawhn-Heath, R. Sarnaik, B.-S. Wang, X. Liu, and J. Cang Direction-Specific Disruption of Subcortical Visual Behavior and Receptive Fields in Mice Lacking the {beta}2 Subunit of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor J. Neurosci., October 14, 2009; 29(41): 12909 - 12918. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. E. Cook and D. L. Becker Gap-Junction Proteins in Retinal Development: New Roles for the "Nexus" Physiology, August 1, 2009; 24(4): 219 - 230. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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