About the Authors

Melissa L Williams

Contributed equally to this work with: Melissa L Williams, Jason E Coleman

Affiliation Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Jason E Coleman

Contributed equally to this work with: Melissa L Williams, Jason E Coleman

Affiliations Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America , Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Shannon E Haire

Affiliation Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Tomas S Aleman

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, Scheie Eye Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Artur V Cideciyan

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, Scheie Eye Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Izabel Sokal

Affiliation Department of Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Krzysztof Palczewski

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Samuel G Jacobson

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, Scheie Eye Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Susan L Semple-Rowland

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rowland@mbi.ufl.edu

Affiliation Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Competing Interests

JEC and SLSR and the University of Florida have submitted a provisional patent that may result in commercialization of some of the technology described in this work.

Author Contributions

MLW and SEH developed the injection and hatching procedures and carried out the behavioral analyses. JEC developed the lentiviral vectors and viral packaging procedures and conducted the in vitro immunocytochemical analyses. TSA, AVC, and SGJ conducted the electrophysiological experiments. IS and KP conducted the biochemical analyses of the function of the lentiviral vectors. SLSR conducted the immunohistochemical, morphological, and molecular analyses and oversaw the organization of this study. SLSR was the lead author and was assisted in the preparation of the manuscript by all authors.