UC Santa Barbara

The development of the central nervous system (CNS), which includes the brain, requires the coordination of numerous intricate processes. Due to its complexity, the brain can be a difficult tissue to use to investigate the genes that are involved in regulating these processes. The retina, which is a simpler tissue in the CNS, can be utilized to study the mechanisms that underlie proper development and maintenance. The murine retina, in which numerous cell types have been studied, provides researchers with a model to study. In this dissertation, three genes and their involvement in retinal development will be evaluated. In the first chapter, we utilize 26 recombinant inbred (RI) strains in order to elucidate genes, as well as their genetic variants, that regulate the size of a neuronal cell population, the AII amacrine cell. In the second chapter, we investigate the genetic regulation of neuronal migration during retinal development. The final chapter describes the analysis of a cell-type specific transcription factor that regulates the morphology of that cell. Studying the genes that regulate the development of the retina provides insight to how the nervous system develops, the knowledge of which should ultimately contribute to the design of successful therapeutics, particularly those involving cell and gene replacement strategies.