Transient OFF-alpha retinal ganglion cells can be distinguished by specific morphological characteristics, which have been confirmed through genetic labeling.
"if there was kind of a like a like a straighter edge along this thing and it had a certain shape and roundness, like I'd tell you right now, that's a transient OFF-alpha cell in the retina. Eventually, we we developed genetic labels to reveal that that was true in every case." (said at 1:14:26)
Animal neurobiology research in transgenic mouse models demonstrates that transient OFF-alpha retinal ganglion cells (tOFF-alphaRGCs) exhibit specific morphological characteristics (such as distinctive dendritic arborization, stratification, and mosaic spacing) that have been identified and confirmed via subtype-specific genetic labeling (e.g., GFP reporter mouse lines). As the evidence is based on animal/basic science models, the GRADE certainty is very low.
- supports: Architecture and activity-mediated refinement of axonal projections from a mosaic of genet… (Neuron 2008)
"Here, we report a transgenic mouse selectively expressing GFP in a complete mosaic of transient OFF-alpha retinal ganglion cells (tOFF-alphaRGCs). This enabled us to relate the mosaic spacing, dendritic anatomy, and electrophysiology of these RGCs to their complete map of projections in the brain." (abstract, results, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi)