Eye tissues such as the lens and the retina possess remarkable regenerative abilities. In amphibians, a complete lens can be regenerated after lentectomy. The process is a classic example of transdifferentiation of one cell type to another. Likewise, retina can be regenerated, but the strategy used to replace the damaged retina differs, depending on the animal system and the age of the animal. ...

The 12 June Reviews by R. Kays et al. (“Terrestrial animal tracking as an eye on life and planet,” p. 1222) and N. E. Hussey et al. (“Aquatic animal telemetry: A panoramic window into the underwater world,” p. 1221) highlight some challenges to the future of terrestrial and aquatic telemetry studies, respectively, focusing on issues related to global collaboration and data sharing. Kays et al. ...

Records on 65,536 Landrace pigs collected between 1985 and 1999 in herds on the National Swine Registry STAGES program were used to estimate genetic change in lean growth rate, days to 250 lb, backfat, and loin eye area. Genetic change was measured as the change in average estimated breeding value (EBV) over years. Analysis was by a multitrait best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) animal model...

Animal eyes have long served as a classical example of independent origin followed by convergence of structures onto a few different solutions. During the past decade this view has been challenged by the discovery of shared developmental regulatory genes. The Pax6 gene in particular is almost universally employed for eye formation in bilaterian animals, despite widely different embryological or...

Gaze stabilization is an almost ubiquitous animal behaviour, one that is required to see the world clearly and without blur. Stomatopods, however, only fix their eyes on scenes or objects of interest occasionally. Almost uniquely among animals they explore their visual environment with a series pitch, yaw and torsional (roll) rotations of their eyes, where each eye may also move largely indepen...

Trace amounts of iodide are transported out of the rabbit eye in such a fashion that this union accumulates in the aqueous humor of the anterior chamber exponentially toith time. Iodide is therefore a useful anion for estimating the coefficient of aqueous flow and requires punctures of the anterior chamber only. The method can be used in two eyes of one animal, or with the use of two or more is...

The adaptive radiation of the eye from an optical perspective has long intrigued scientists, at least from the 19th century. In a paper on the optics of the fish lens published in 1816, David Brewster, the Scottish scientist, wrote, “There is, perhaps, no subject in natural history which has excited so much attention, as the structure and functions of the eyes of animals; . . . and the natural ...

Aberration variations severely degrade retinal imaging in small animal eyes. Previously, the approach of a goggle lens with a matching corneal index was proposed to overcome the on-axis resolution limit of static imaging systems, which allows the use of the full eye pupil. But this technique didn't address the problem of the large power variation, and the ensuing aberration on and off-axis, whe...

Pax transcription factors are involved in a variety of developmental processes in bilaterians, including eye development, a role typically assigned to Pax-6. Although no true Pax-6 gene has been found in nonbilateral animals, some jellyfish have eyes with complex structures. In the cubozoan jellyfish Tripedalia, Pax-B, an ortholog of vertebrate Pax-2/5/8, had been proposed as a regulator of eye...

The mechanics of the eyeball and orbital tissues (the "ocular motor plant") are a fundamental determinant of ocular motor signal processing. The mouse is used increasingly in ocular motor physiology, but little is known about its plant mechanics. One way to characterize the mechanics is to determine relationships between extraocular motoneuron firing and eye movement. We recorded abducens nucle...