The rodent retina is a particularly attractive model for the study of neuro
nal developmental processes since considerable neurogenesis, cellular migra
tion, phenotypic differentiation of retinal cell types and synaptogenesis o
ccurs postnatally. In addition, the retina is readily accessible to surgica
l intervention, pharmacological manipulation, and local, suppression of gen
e expression-tools that can be utilized to study mechanisms underlying the
development of retinal neurons and their interconnections that form distinc
t functional circuits. Here, I review our studies describing the ontogeny o
f a specific retinal interneuron, the AII amacrine cell, an integral elemen
t in the rod (scotopic) pathway. Specifically, we used a number of approach
es to examine the potential role of neurotrophic factors on the morphologic
al and neurochemical differentiation of the AII. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.