Transcriptional mapping of the macaque retina and RPE-choroid reveals conserved inter-tissue transcription drivers and signaling pathways

The macula and fovea comprise a highly sensitive visual detection tissue that is susceptible to common disease processes such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD).  Unfortunately our understanding of the molecular determinants of high acuity vision remains unclear, as few model organisms possess a human-like fovea.  We explore transcription factor networks and receptor-ligand interactions to elucidate tissue interactions in the macula and peripheral retina and concomitant changes in the underlying retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)/choroid. Poly-A selected, 100 bp paired-end RNA-s equencing (RNA-seq) was performed across the macular/foveal, perimacular, and temporal peripheral regions of the neural retina and RPE / choroid tissues of four adult  Rhesus macaque eyes to characterize region- and tissue-specific gene expression.  RNA-seq reads were mapped to both the macaque and human genomes for maximum alignment and analyzed for differential expression and G ene O ntology (GO) enrichment.