Pax6 lights-up the way for eye development

Recent reports have exposed the temporal and spatial functions of the trans cription factor Pax6 in the developing vertebrate eye. Pax6 is demonstrated to play essential roles in successive steps triggering lens differentiatio n while in the retina it functions to maintain multipotency and proliferati on of retinal progenitor cells. These findings, together with the identific ation of Pax6 protein partners and downstream targets, pave the way for fut ure work aimed to understand the molecular mechanism of eye development.