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Large retinal ganglion cells that form independent, regular mosaics in the ranid frogs Rana esculenta and Rana pipiens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

K. M. Shamim ,
F. Scalia ,
P. Tóth  and
J. E. Cook
K. M. Shamim
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, U.K. Department of Anatomy, Institute of Postgraduate Medicine and Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
F. Scalia
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn
P. Tóth
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, University Medical School, Szigeti út 12, Pécs H-7643, Hungary
J. E. Cook
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, U.K.
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Abstract

Population-based studies of ganglion cells in retinal flatmounts have helped to reveal some of their natural types in mammals, teleost fish and, recently, the aquatic mesobatrachian frog Xenopus laevis. Here, ganglion cells of the semiterrestrial neobatrachian frogs Rana esculenta and Rana pipiens have been studied similarly. Ganglion cells with large somata and thick dendrites could again be divided into three mosaic-forming types with distinctive stratification patterns. Cell dimensions correlated inversely with density, being smallest in the visual streak. Cells of the αa mosaic (<0.2% of all ganglion cells) had the largest somata at each location (often displaced) and their trees were confined to one shallow plane within sublamina a of the inner plexiform layer. In regions of high regularity, many trees were symmetric. Elsewhere, asymmetric, irregular trees predominated and their dendrites, although sparsely branched, achieved consistent coverage by intersecting in complex ways. Cells of the αab mosaic were more numerous (≈0.7%) and had large somata, smaller (but still large) trees, and dendrites that branched extensively in two separate shallow planes in sublaminae a and b. The subtrees did not always match in symmetry, and each subtree tessellated independently with its neighbors. Cells of the αc mosaic (≈0.1%) had large, orthotopic somata and large, sparse trees (often asymmetric and irregular) close to the ganglion cell layer. Nearest-neighbor analyses and spatial correlograms confirmed that each mosaic was regular and independent. Densities, proportions, sizes, and mosaic statistics are tabulated for all three types, which are compared with types defined by size and symmetry in R. pipiens, by discriminant analysis in R. temporaria, by physiological response in both, and by mosaic analysis in Xenopus and several teleosts. The variable stratification of these otherwise similar types across species is consistent with other evidence that stratification may be determined, in part, by functional interactions.

Keywords

Dendritic treeTessellationClassificationNatural typeHomology
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 14 , Issue 6 , November 1997 , pp. 1109 - 1127
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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