MERTK and retinal degeneration: The RCS rat bears a mutation of a RPE specific protein: MERTK, which is a tyrosine-protein kinase MER that has been also found in humans with early onset retinal degeneration and Leber Congenital Amaurosis (Gal et al., 2000; Veleri et al., 2015; Parinot and Nandrot, 2016).