... retinal neurons, including cones. We show here that Bmi1 is required to prevent post natal degeneration of cone photoreceptors and bipolar neurons and that inactivation of Chk2 or p53 could improve but not overcome cone degeneration in Bmi1 −/− mice. The retinal phenotype of Bmi1 −/− mice was also...

...Seanna M. Martin; Georgeann S. O'Brien; Carlos Portera-Cailliau; Alvaro Sagasti Fragments of injured axons that detach from their cell body break down by the molecularly regulated process of Wallerian degeneration (WD). Although WD resembles local axon degeneration, a common mechanism for refining...

... in the Drosophila retina, creating a model of Leigh Syndrome, an early-onset neurodegenerative disorder. Using mutations that affect mitochondrial complex II, we demonstrate that mild disruptions of mitochondrial function have no effect on the initial stages of photoreceptor development, but cause degeneration...

... controlled. In a large-scale mutagenesis screen for embryonic lethal mutations in zebrafish Danio rerio we have found 481 mutations with a neural degeneration phenotype. Here, we present 50 mutations that fall into two classes (termed spacehead and fala-like) that are characterized by two main features...

...S. Sanyal; C. Dees; G. H. Zeilmaker ABSTRACT In homozygous rds mutant mice the photoreceptor cells lack outer segment discs and slowly degenerate. In the heterozygotes the receptor cells develop abnormal outer segments and show altered disc shedding properties as revealed by the pigment epithelial...