Light and electron microscopic techniques were used to study the cellular and ultrastructural components of the regenerating adult eye of the marine prosobranch gastropod Ilyanassa obsoleta. Behavioral tests were used to determine return of vision in animals with generated eyes. As early as 3 days after removal of the adult eye, the regenerating eye primordium appeared as a pigmented mass of cells that invaginated from the surface epithelium in the area of the wound. Twelve days after eye removal, the regenerating eye was very similar to the postmetamorphic juvenile eye and to the adult eye: It contained a retinal layer, as well as an extracellular lens, cornea, connective tissue capsule, and forming optic nerve; vision had returned. Growth of the eye and its components was linear; size ratios established among forming eye components were maintained during growth. The events of eye regeneration appear to recapitulate embryonic eye formation. The sequence of invagination, pigmentation, and lens, optic nerve, and retinal pattern formation are similar.
Copyright © 1984 Wiley-Liss, Inc.