Morphogenesis of retinal ganglion cells: a model of dendritic, mosaic, and foveal development.

Much is known about the morphological development of mammalian retinal ganglion cells. However, relatively little is understood about the mechanisms that direct dendritic development and determine ganglion cell morphology, mosaic organization, and foveal development. In the following, we review current data on primate retinal ganglion cell development and integrate it with information from other species into a general model of dendritic development. Furthermore, we propose that this model not only explains ganglion cell dendritic development, but also accounts for the establishment of retinal ganglion cell mosaics and the timing of foveal formation.