Deterministic fate assignment of Müller glia cells in the zebrafish retina suggest a clonal backbone during development

Abstract

The optic cup houses multipotent retinal progenitor cells that proliferate and differentiate to form the mature retina, containing five main types of neurons and a single glial cell type, the Müller cell. Progenitors of the zebrafish optic cup generate clones that varies regarding the number and types of neurons, a process we previously showed could be described by stochastic models. Here, we present data indicating that each retinal progenitor cell, in the 24 hours post‐fertilization optic cup, is predestined to form a single Müller cell. This striking fate assignment of Müller cells reveal a dual nature of retinal lineages where stochastic mechanisms produce variable numbers of neurons while there is a strong deterministic component governing the formation of glia cells. A possible mechanism for this stereotypic fate assignment could be the maintenance of a clonal backbone during retina development, which would be similar to invertebrate and rodent cortical neurogenesis.

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