A gene causing ocular retardation in the mouse.

I N 1955 three mice with very small eyes were observed in a stock segregating for the gene Patch. These animals all came from the same mating and on investigation proved to be homozygous for a new gene causing a reduction in the blood-supply of the eyes at a critical embryonic stage. The original animals where also Ph[-\-, but this gene was soon eliminated from the new stock and had nothing to do with the size of the eyes. A segregating litter of these mice was given to Dr. B. V. Konyukhov of Moscow in 1959 for immunological studies on the development of the lens. Since then Dr. Konyukhov (1961) has carried out genetical (Konyukhov & Glukharev, 1961) and embryological investigations which have partly duplicated the present work. Unfortunately, Dr. Konyukhov has used the unofficial laboratory name of 'blind' (symbol bl) for the mutant. This name has already been used for a different eye mutant and the symbol bl has been used for the spotting mutant 'blaze'. As the discoverer of the gene I propose to call it 'ocular retardation', symbol or.