ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2010
Retinal development and function in a 'blind' mole.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Subterranean Traits of the Visual System in Mandarin Voles (Lasiopodomys mandarinus): Structural Remodeling and Functional Degeneration.Integrative zoology · 2026Article
- Caecilians maintain a functional long-wavelength-sensitive cone opsin gene despite signatures of relaxed selection and more than 200 million years of fossoriality.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2025Article
- Caecilians maintain a functional long-wavelength-sensitive cone opsin gene despite signatures of relaxed selection and more than 200 million years of fossoriality.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Three Blind Moles: Molecular Evolutionary Insights on the Tempo and Mode of Convergent Eye Degeneration inGenes · 2023Article
- Comparative Neurology of Circadian Photoreception: The Retinohypothalamic Tract (RHT) in Sighted and Naturally Blind Mammals.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Review
- Non-image Forming Light Detection by Melanopsin, Rhodopsin, and Long-Middlewave (L/W) Cone Opsin in the Subterranean Blind Mole Rat, Spalax Ehrenbergi: Immunohistochemical Characterization, Distribution, and Connectivity.Frontiers in neuroanatomy · 2016Article
- Development of the cornea of true moles (Talpidae): morphogenesis and expression of PAX6 and cytokeratins.Journal of anatomy · 2010Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Animals adapted to dark ecotopes may experience selective pressure for retinal reduction. No previous studies have explicitly addressed the molecular basis of retinal development in any fossorial mammal. We studied retinal development and function in the Iberian mole Talpa occidentalis, which was presumed to be blind because of its permanently closed eyes. Prenatal retina development was relatively normal, with specification of all cell types and evidence of dorsoventral regionalization. Severe developmental defects occurred after birth, subsequent to lens abnormalities. 'Blind' Iberian moles had rods, cones and rod nuclear ultrastructure typical of diurnal mammals. DiI staining revealed only contralateral projections through the optic chiasm. Y-maze experiments demonstrated that moles retain a photoavoidance response. Over-representation of melanopsin-positive retinal ganglion cells that mediate photoperiodicity was observed. Hence, molecular pathways of eye development in Iberian moles retain the adaptive function of rod/cone primary vision and photoperiodicity, with no evidence that moles are likely to completely lose their eyes on an evolutionary time scale.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.