About the Authors

Virgilio G. Ponferrada

Affiliations The Visual Systems Group, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, Divisions of Pediatric Ophthalmology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Jieqing Fan

Affiliations The Visual Systems Group, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, Divisions of Pediatric Ophthalmology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, Molecular and Developmental Biology Graduate Program, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Jefferson E. Vallance

Affiliations The Visual Systems Group, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, Divisions of Pediatric Ophthalmology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Shengyong Hu

Affiliations The Visual Systems Group, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, Divisions of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Aygun Mamedova

Affiliations The Visual Systems Group, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, Divisions of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Scott A. Rankin

Affiliation Divisions of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Matthew Kofron

Affiliation Divisions of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Aaron M. Zorn

Affiliation Divisions of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Rashmi S. Hegde

Rashmi.Hegde@cchmc.org (RSH); Richard.Lang@cchmc.org (RAL)

Affiliations The Visual Systems Group, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, Divisions of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Richard A. Lang

Rashmi.Hegde@cchmc.org (RSH); Richard.Lang@cchmc.org (RAL)

Affiliations The Visual Systems Group, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, Divisions of Pediatric Ophthalmology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, Divisions of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, Molecular and Developmental Biology Graduate Program, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: VGP RSH RAL. Performed the experiments: VGP JF JEV SH AM. Analyzed the data: VGP RSH RAL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SAR MK AMZ. Wrote the paper: VGP JF RSH RAL.