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Updated: May 2, 2026

VisioTracker, an Innovative Automated Approach to Oculomotor Analysis
Published on: October 12, 2011
The quantification of zebrafish ocular-associated proteins provides hints for sex-biased visual impairments and
Hamid Niksirat1, Valentina Siino2, Christoph Steinbach1
1Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, CENAKVA, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Vodňany, Czech Republic.
Abstract:
Biochemical differences between sexes can also be seen in non-sexual organs and may affect organ functions and susceptibility to diseases. It has been shown that there are sex-biased visual perceptions and impairments. Abundance differences of eye proteins could provide explanations for some of these. Exploration of the ocular proteome was performed to find sex-based protein abundance differences in zebrafish Danio rerio. A label-free protein quantification workflow using high-resolution mass spectrometry was employed to find proteins with significant differences between the sexes. In total, 3740 unique master proteins were identified and quantified, and 49 proteins showed significant abundance differences between the eyes of male and female zebrafish. Those proteins belong to lipoproteins, immune system, blood coagulation, antioxidants, iron and heme-binding proteins, ion channels, pumps and exchangers, neuronal and photoreceptor proteins, and the cytoskeleton. An extensive literature review provided clues for the possible links between the sex-biased level of proteins and visual perception and impairments. In conclusion, sexual dimorphism at the protein level was discovered for the first time in the eye of zebrafish and should be accounted for in ophthalmological studies. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD033338.
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