Laminar redistribution of a glial subtype in the chick optic tectum

Lamination is a central feature of structural organization and segregation within the central nervous system. Afferent fibers typically restrict their synapses to only one or a few specific laminae in the target region. Astroglial cells act as boundary markers for functional segregation of inputs in somatosensory cortex and the olfactory bulb and might also help to segregate particular connections in the neostriatum. This work presents evidence that a subset of astroglial cells expressing the carbohydrate recognized by tomato lectin are enriched in retino-non-recipient laminae of the chick optic tectum. This segregation is dependent upon retinal innervation; enucleated chick tecta contain cells that bind tomato lectin but do not segregate into their normal laminae. These results suggest that tomato lectin positive astrocytes of the superficial chick tectum play a role in defining or restricting lamina specific connections of retinal axons.