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Lipid dismantling of lens organelles for clear vision

In the eye, the transparent lens focuses light on the retina. This transparency is achieved during lens development by a newly identified mechanism — whole organelles are destroyed by the degradation of their lipid membranes.
  1. Patricia Boya

    1. Patricia Boya is in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Margarita Salas Center for Biological Research, CSIC, 28040 Madrid, Spain.

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The eye consists of three main tissue types; the cornea, lens and retina. The lens is a biconvex, transparent structure that functions like a camera lens, allowing the passage of light and focusing it on the retina. Cataracts are the result of changes in lens transparency that impede the passage of light, and they account for almost 50% of the total cases of blindness in adults aged 50 years and over1. Identifying the mechanisms underlying lens transparency might thus improve our understanding of cataract biology. Writing in Nature, Morishita et al.2 provide crucial, long-sought information about how lens transparency is achieved during normal development.

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Nature 592, 509-510 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00888-1

Updates & Corrections

  • Clarification 15 April 2021: The original article did not specify that HRASLS proteins are also known as PLAAT proteins.

References

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