ArticlePLoS biology2025
A standardized nomenclature for the rods and cones of the vertebrate retina.
Article in PLoS biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Perceptual and neural constraints on photometric measures of heterochromatic brightness.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Opsin gene evolution in aquatic, amphibious and terrestrial blennies (Blenniidae).Biology open · 2026Article
- The human THRB thyroid hormone receptor gene and the puzzle of retinal disease phenotypes.Developmental biology · 2026Review
- Canonical PKCα-immunoreactive rod bipolar cells are present in nocturnal snakes but not in diurnal snakes.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The molecular evolution of vertebrate organs.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Review
- Light intensity and opsin sensitivity shape the morphology of cone photoreceptor outer segments.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- A heterogeneous population code at the first synapse of vision.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- The Effects of Light on Vertebrate Welfare: A Review.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Seeing in the Deep: Evolution of the Opsin Gene Expression in Bermin Crater Lake Cichlids.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Exceptional Visual-Opsin Coexpression and Phenotypic Diversity in Outer-Retinal Photoreceptors of Caenophidian Snakes.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2025Article
- Comparative transcriptomic insights into the evolution of vertebrate photoreceptor types.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
- The cone visual cycle and its disorders: insights from zebrafish.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
20 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Vertebrate photoreceptors have been studied for well over a century, but a fixed nomenclature for referring to orthologous cell types across diverse species has been lacking. Instead, photoreceptors have been variably-and often confusingly-named according to morphology, presence/absence of 'rhodopsin', spectral sensitivity, chromophore usage, and/or the gene family of the opsin(s) they express. Here, we propose a unified nomenclature for vertebrate rods and cones that aligns with the naming systems of other retinal cell classes and that is based on the photoreceptor type's putative evolutionary history. This classification is informed by the functional, anatomical, developmental, and molecular identities of the neuron as a whole, including the expression of deeply conserved transcription factors required for development. The proposed names will be applicable across all vertebrates and indicative of the widest possible range of properties, including their postsynaptic wiring, and hence will allude to their common and species-specific roles in vision. Furthermore, the naming system is open-ended to accommodate the future discovery of as-yet unknown photoreceptor types.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.