A team of researchers has found the genetic "switch" that turns on the light in the eye of a tiny fish, a discovery that could help scientists better understand the human genome.
Florida State University biology Professor James Fadool, a member of the team, said the gene's role was discovered in a minnow-sized fish called the zebrafish. The gene allows embryonic cells to develop into the fish's retina, the light gathering tissue at the back of the eye. Without the gene the embryonic cells would never mature into the cells that form the retina.
Identifying this gene may help scientists studying human genes because it is now believed that this function is required for embryonic cells in all organisms to develop into specific cell types, Fadool said.
Researchers tend to think of genes as acting independently when developing from the embryonic state to the mature state, but the newly discovered gene appears to be necessary for the switch to take place. The research team dubbed it the "young" gene because in its absence none of the cells of the zebrafish's retina matured.
"This is important because this gene appears to act as a global regulator of the genome needed at the point where embryonic tissue of the eye becomes mature tissue," Fadool said. "This gives us a glimpse of what needs to be in the stem cells to make that switch."
Fadool was joined by researchers from Harvard University, the University of Louisville and the Medical College of Wisconsin in conducting the research, which was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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