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Researchers identify key gene that controls lens development
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The gene Six3 may be one of the earliest critical regulators controlling lens development in the eyes of mammalian embryos, a study of a mouse model suggests.
Investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital found that Six3 activates Pax6, the primary gene regulating ocular development. Without Six3, Pax6 fails to coordinate the activity of additional genes that jointly form the lens, according to a press release from the hospital.
The investigators also found that removing Six3 during early development prevents normal thickening of the presumptive lens ectoderm, which is an initial critical step in lens formation, according to the release.
"Our discovery helps to better unravel the regulatory pathway that controls normal lens formation ... . The early steps leading to lens formation will help us determine what goes wrong in disorders in which the lens does not form or forms abnormally. That kind of information is often the first step in designing both preventive and treatment strategies for congenital diseases," said Guillermo Oliver, PhD, one of the study's authors, in the release.
The study is published online in the European Molecular Biology Association Journal.