Therefore, even though retinal degeneration does trigger intrusion of horizontal cell processes into the outer nuclear layer over time, the severity of the phenotype observed in young congenital BBS mutant mice is not recapitulated in Bbs8floxed/floxed; Rho-Cre+ mice at any age, even when compared to Bbs8floxed/floxed; Rho-Cre+ mice at a much more advanced stage of retinal degeneration. The gene discussed is RHO; the disease is Bardet-Biedl syndrome.