Temporal dissociation of developmental events in the chick eye under low temperature conditions

The chick embryonic eye is an excellent model for the study of vertebrate organogenesis. Key events in eye development involve thickening, invagination and cytodifferentiation of the lens primordium. While these events occur successively at different developmental stages, the extent to which these events are temporally related is largely unknown. Here we show that the lens invagination is highly sensitive to temperature. Lowering of incubation temperature to 29°C at embryonic day 2 delayed the onset of invagination of the lens, but not thickening and cytodifferentiation, leading to abnormal protrusion of the eye. The temperature shift also delayed the inward bending of the underlying retinal primordium, even in the absence of the lens. Taken together, our results suggest that lens invagination is initiated independently of thickening and cytodifferentiation, possibly by mechanisms associated with morphogenesis of the primordial retina.

The chick eye develops through successive morphological changes that occur concordantly under normal circumstances. Lowering of incubation temperature to 29°C delays the onset of invagination, but not thickening, of the lens, resulting in abnormal protrusion of the eye.

Source: Development, Growth and Differentiation - September 30, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Hideaki Iida, Tiantian Yang, Sadao Yasugi, Yasuo Ishii Tags: Original Article Source Type: research