β-catenin is essential for lamination but not neurogenesis in mouse retinal development

During vertebrate retinal development, the seven retinal cell types differentiate sequentially from a single population of retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) and organize themselves into a distinct laminar structure. The purpose of this study was to determine whether β-catenin, which functions both as a nuclear effector for the canonical Wnt signaling pathway and as a regulator of cell adhesion, is required for retinal neurogenesis or lamination. We used the Cre-loxP system to either eliminate β-catenin or to express a constitutively active form during retinal neurogenesis. Eliminating β-catenin did not affect cell differentiation, but did result in the loss of the radial arrangement of RPCs and caused abnormal migration of differentiated neurons. As a result, the laminar structure was massively disrupted in β-catenin-null retinas, although all retinal cell types still formed. In contrast to other neural tissues, eliminating β-catenin did not significantly reduce the proliferation rate of RPCs; likewise, activating β-catenin ectopically in RPCs did not result in overproliferation, but loss of neural retinal identity. These results indicate that β-catenin is essential during retinal neurogenesis as a regulator of cell adhesion but not as a nuclear effector of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. The results further imply that retinal lamination and retinal cell differentiation are genetically separable processes.