Figures
APLP2 regulates refractive error development in mice and humans.
Genetic factors are believed to play a key role in determining the impact of environmental factors such as reading and nearwork on refractive eye development and development of myopia; however, experimental proof of this gene-environment interaction has been missing. Analysis of genetic variation of the APLP2 gene revealed that a low-frequency variant of APLP2 is associated with myopia in children if they engage in above-average levels of reading. Furthermore, lack of APLP2 leads to a dose-dependent reduction in susceptibility to form-deprivation myopia in mice; thus, confirming interaction between APLP2 and visual input observed in humans. See Tkatchenko et al.
Image Credit: Andrei V. Tkatchenko
Citation: (2015) PLoS Genetics Issue Image | Vol. 11(8) August 2015. PLoS Genet 11(8): ev11.i08. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pgen.v11.i08
Published: August 31, 2015
Copyright: © 2015 Tkatchenko. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Genetic factors are believed to play a key role in determining the impact of environmental factors such as reading and nearwork on refractive eye development and development of myopia; however, experimental proof of this gene-environment interaction has been missing. Analysis of genetic variation of the APLP2 gene revealed that a low-frequency variant of APLP2 is associated with myopia in children if they engage in above-average levels of reading. Furthermore, lack of APLP2 leads to a dose-dependent reduction in susceptibility to form-deprivation myopia in mice; thus, confirming interaction between APLP2 and visual input observed in humans. See Tkatchenko et al.
Image Credit: Andrei V. Tkatchenko