Teleost vision: seeing while growing.

Teleost fish eyes grow throughout life without compromising visual performance of the animal. This is made possible by a set of novel adaptations in the growth and development of the eye. Increased retinal area is achieved both by stretching the existing retina and by generation of new tissue at the retinal germinal zone at the margin of the eye. Rods are added in a fundamentally different fashion than are all other retinal cell types: they appear last as new retina is produced at the margin and they are inserted throughout the functional retina as it stretches. In this way, the animal maintains a constant rod density to preserve vision in low light level. Because the larger eye produces a larger image, visual acuity improves slightly as the animal grows. Adaptations responsible for regulation of retinal growth are analyzed and discussed.