Investigation of Frizzled-5 during embryonic neural development in mouse

Cellular and tissue--tissue interactions regulate development of the central nervous system (CNS) and a paramount question is what is the nature of the signals involved in these interactions. The vertebrate eye represents an excellent and challenging CNS model because it contains multiple cell and tissue types that must coordinate their development to form a functional unit. Eye development becomes apparent when the ventral diencephalic neuroepithelium evaginates to form the optic vesicles. The neural retina and retinal pigment epithelium become patterned in the distal and proximal domains of the optic vesicle, respectively. Adjacent extraocular tissues such as the surrounding mesenchyme, the overlying surface ectoderm and the ventral diencephalon regulate these patterning events. Interaction between the distal optic vesicle and surface (lens) ectoderm leads to invagination, formation of the optic cup, and subsequent development of the lens. Several genes have been shown to control optic cup morphogenesis and differentiation of ocular tissues.