Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 29: Multicellular Systems

BP 29.8: Vortrag

Dienstag, 8. März 2016, 12:00–12:15, H45

Tissue level optical benefits of photoreceptor nuclei inversion — •Kaushikaram Subramanian¹, Zuzanna Blaszczak², Alfonso Garcia Ulloa¹, Martin Weigert¹, Irina Solovei⁴, Jochen Guck³, and Moritz Kreysing¹ — ¹MPI-CBG, Dresden, Germany — ²Cavendish Lab, Cambridge Univ, UK — ³BIOTEC, TU Dresden, Germany — ⁴Dept of Biology, LMU Munich, Germany

With the photoreceptor cells lying at the back, the retina has a counter intuitive optical design that necessitates propagation of light through hundreds of microns of neural tissue prior to detection. Retina has a high cell density (3-5 times higher than brain) and a large volume-fraction of nuclei that can potentially scatter light. During postnatal retinal development the photoreceptor nuclei in nocturnal mammals invert their chromatin architecture [1]. Based on interferometric measurements and simulations, it was suggested that scattering in the retina is reduced by this chromatin re-arrangement and that the individual nuclei possess the optical quality of lenses [2]. Subsequently, predictions about light transmission at tissue level were made. Using the concept of modulation transfer we aim to experimentally verify the simulation based predictions on tissue level optical benefit stemming from this nuclear inversion. Specifically we will present a comparative optical characterisation of wild type and a transgenic mice retina lacking inverted nuclei. Further results indicate optical quality of the retina improve during terminal retinal development, the period in which the unique inversion of nuclei takes place. References: [1] Solovei et al, Cell, 137(2) (2009) [2] Błaszczak et al, Opt Express, 22(9) (2014)