PATTERNING THE VERTEBRATE RETINA - THE EARLY APPEARANCE OF RETINAL MOSAICS

The vertebrate retina is an extraordinary example of the modular desig n of the nervous tissue. Retinal neurons are organized in layers and, within each layer, cells of the same type commonly form orderly planar arrays - the retinal mosaics - which provide the basis for powerful P arallel Processing of the visual scene. Recent evidence indicates that the assembly of neuronal mosaics is an early event in retinal develop ment, a finding with important implications for the control of genesis , fate determination, migration and death of developing retinal neuron s.