The present investigation has sought to determine whether the
population of retinal horizontal cells undergoes an increase in the
precision of its mosaic patterning during postnatal development, and if
so, whether this increase is compatible with three different mechanistic
accounts of retinal mosaic formation. Horizontal cells were labeled with
antibodies to neurofilaments or calbindin at different developmental
stages, and then visualized in retinal wholemounts. Multiple fields were
sampled from each retina to determine horizontal cell density, while the
X–Y coordinates of each cell in a field were
determined. An estimate of total horizontal cell number was calculated for
each retina, while the Voronoi domain regularity index and the packing
factor were computed for each field. Two strains of mice showing a
two-fold difference in the size of their horizontal cell population in
maturity were sampled, C57BL/6J and A/J. Horizontal cell number in
C57BL/6J was approximately twice that observed in A/J at all
postnatal stages, with neither strain showing an effect of age on
horizontal cell number. In both strains, however, the Voronoi domain
regularity index and the packing factor were significantly lower at P-1
relative to later developmental stages. These results show that accounts
of mosaic formation proposing the selective death of irregularly
positioned cells, or the periodic occurrence of fate-determining events,
are insufficient to establish the final patterning achieved by horizontal
cells. Rather, they support the hypothesis that tangential dispersion
enhances mosaic patterning during postnatal development.