The coordination between further proliferation, differentiation and cell cycle exit in retina development is a complex and fully coordinated process. More specifically it involves cell cycle exit, migration as well as multiple regulatory pathways which involve transcription factors and cell-cell signaling events. The plethora of retina cell types develop form a common pool of progenitor cells. Pluripotent retinal progenitors produce a varied number of clones of heterogeneous size and cell types. However up until now little is known regarding the involvement of non-apical progenitors in retinal development.

We developed a mathematical model to assess that increasing apical precursors overcrowding leads to non-apical divisions. The model describes a basic lineage relationship between pluripotent progenitors, committed progenitors and neurons located apically and non-apically. We further estimate the maximum transition rate with which an apical progenitor becomes a sub-apically dividing precursor. In addition, we formulate a qualitative mathematical model using a combination of experimentally measured and model selected parameters.