Doryteuthis pealeii embyronic transcriptome individual stages 16-27 pooled and annotation

Photoreception is a ubiquitous sensory ability found across the Metazoa,
and photoreceptive organs are intricate and diverse in their structure.
Although the morphology of the compound eye in Drosophila and the
single-chambered eye in vertebrates have elaborated independently, the
amount of conservation within the 'eye' gene regulatory network
remains controversial, with few taxa studied. To better understand the
evolution of photoreceptive organs, we established the cephalopod
Doryteuthis pealeii as a lophotrochozoan model for eye development.
Utilizing histological, transcriptomic and molecular assays, we
characterize eye formation in Doryteuthis pealeii Through lineage tracing
and gene expression analyses, we demonstrate that cells expressing Pax and
Six genes incorporate into the lens, cornea and iris, and the eye placode
is the sole source of retinal tissue. Functional assays demonstrate that
Notch signaling is required for photoreceptor cell differentiation and
retinal organization. This comparative approach places the canon of eye
research in traditional models into perspective, highlighting complexity
as a result of both conserved and convergent mechanisms.