Cone cells influence photoreceptor function: Evidence for glia-like support functions in the Drosophila eye
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1
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, United States
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2
University of Cincinnati, Department of Biological Sciences, United States
Cone cells (CCs) in the Drosophila compound eye are a subset of corneagenous cells that secrete the corneal lens and underlying pseudocone. However, these cells also stretch apicobasally between the photoreceptors, cap the top and bottom of the light-sensing rhabdomere, and form the pore through which the photoreceptors exit the retina. Recent studies demonstrated that beta-alanine, a key molecule in both glucose metabolism and photoreceptor neurotransmitter recycling, is highly expressed in the Drosophila pseudocone. Together, these data suggest that CCs could provide structural and functional support for photoreceptors in the fly retina, similar to Muller glia in the vertebrate retina. Consistent with this, CCs are the first non-neuronal cells to form after neurogenesis, like glia in other parts of the nervous system.
We recently demonstrated that the transcription factor Prospero (Pros), which is expressed in CCs, regulates photoreceptor-to-CC fate decisions, similar to its roles in neuron-glia decisions during embryonic nervous system development. To specifically test for a potential role for Pros in regulating glia-like support functions in the CCs, we analyzed photoreceptor morphology and electrical activity in genetically engineered flies with pros-negative CCs. PRs developed morphologically intact in these eyes, but exhibited severely compromised phototransduction properties, especially in response to extended stimuli. In parallel experiments, transcriptome analysis of purified wild-type CCs uncovered an enrichment of factors with glial-associated functions such as neurotransmitter synthesis and recycling, water and ion homeostasis, and glucose metabolism.
In combination, these data reveal a bi-functional role of CCs in the insect compound eye, being not only necessary for lens formation as previously described but also for sustaining the functionality of PRs as resident glia/support cells, which can now be dissected with the precision of Drosophila genetics.
Keywords:
glia,
cone cells,
phototransduction,
evolution,
Compound Eye, Arthropod,
Drosophila vision
Conference:
International Conference on Invertebrate Vision, Fjälkinge, Sweden, 1 Aug - 8 Aug, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Oral presentation preferred
Topic:
Development and evolution
Citation:
Charlton-Perkins
M,
Buschbeck
EK and
Cook
T
(2019). Cone cells influence photoreceptor function: Evidence for glia-like support functions in the Drosophila eye.
Front. Physiol.
Conference Abstract:
International Conference on Invertebrate Vision.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fphys.2013.25.00017
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Received:
28 Feb 2013;
Published Online:
09 Dec 2019.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Tiffany Cook, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, United States, tiffany.cook@cchmc.org