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rod cells

This term has been used in several different ways.

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(-1-)

Rod cells are retinal photoreceptor cells (visual cells) that transduce light signals into electrical responses. These cells are concentrated at the periphery of the retina. Like the other major cell types composing the neural retina (Jeon et al, 1998), rod cells arise from a pool of multipotent neuroepithelial progenitor cells (Turner and Cepko, 1987; Wetts and Fraser, 1988). Subsets of retinal progenitors have been shown to display temporally regulated and distinct biases in the fates of their progeny (Alexiades and Cepko, 1997). Rod photoreceptor cells form synapses with sensor neurons (bipolar cells) that link to other specialized neurons (horizontal cells, amacrine cells) that form a lateral network within different parts of the retina and are involved in processing visual information. Major links are established to other sensor neurons (ganglion cells), the axon bundles of which form the optic nerve (Bloomfield and Dacheux, 2001).

Unlike images produced by cone cells, images produced by rod cells are grainy and poorly defined, as well as monochromatic. Rod cells are very sensitive to light and allow vision in conditions with very low lighting. Rod cells possess a non-motile cilium that contains the light-sensitive pigment rhodopsin, which is composed of the light-absorbing compound retinal and the protein opsin.

Nishida et al (2003) have shown that the transcription factor Otx2 is essential for retinal photoreceptor cell fate determination. Otx2-deficiency converts differentiating photoreceptor cells to amacrine-like neurons and transactivates the cone-rod homeobox gene Crx, which is required for terminal differentiation and maintenance of photoreceptor cells. Retroviral gene transfer of Otx2 steers retinal progenitor cells toward becoming photoreceptors.

For related information see also: Cell types.

LAST MODIFIED: September 2006

REFERENCES: Alexiades MR and Cepko CL Subsets of retinal progenitors display temporally regulated and distinct biases in the fates of their progeny. Development 124(6): 1119-1131 (1997); Bloomfield SA and Dacheux RF Rod vision: pathways and processing in the mammalian retina. Progress Retina and Eye Research 20(3): 351-384 (2001); Jeon CJ et al The major cell populations of the mouse retina. Journal of Neuroscience 18(21): 8936-8946 (1998); Nishida A et al Otx2 homeobox gene controls retinal photoreceptor cell fate and pineal gland development. Nature Neuroscience 6(12): 1255-1263 (2003); Turner DL and Cepko CL A common progenitor for neurons and glia persists in rat retina late in development. Nature 328: 131-136 (1987); Wetts R and Fraser SE Multipotent precursors can give rise to all major cell types of the frog retina. Science 239, 1142-1145 (1988)

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(-2-)

see: littoral cells.

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