Normal eye-specific patterning of retinal inputs to murine subcortical visual nuclei in the absence of brain-derived neurotrophic factor

Abstract

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a preferred ligand for a member of the tropomyosin-related receptor family, trkB. Activation of trkB is implicated in various activity-independent as well as activity-dependent growth processes in many developing and mature neural systems. In the subcortical visual system, where electrical activity has been implicated in normal development, both differential survival, as well as remodeling of axonal arbors, have been suggested to contribute to eye-specific segregation of retinal ganglion cell inputs. Here, we tested whether BDNF is required for eye-specific segregation of visual inputs to the lateral geniculate nucleus and the superior colliculus, and two other major subcortical target fields in mice. We report that eye-specific patterning is normal in two mutants that lack BDNF expression during the segregation period: a germ-line knockout for BDNF, and a conditional mutant in which BDNF expression is absent or greatly reduced in the central nervous system. We conclude that the availability of BDNF is not necessary for eye-specific segregation in subcortical visual nuclei.