Indeed, dysfunctional phagocytosis has been described in both acquired age-related macular degeneration (AMD) (Golestaneh et al., 2017; Inana et al., 2018) and genetically inherited retinal degenerative diseases, including retinitis pigmentosa (RP) caused by mutations in Mer receptor tyrosine kinase (MERTK) (Almedawar et al., 2020; Niemann et al., 2000) and bestrophinopathies (Zorych et al., 2017). Here, MERTK is linked to retinitis pigmentosa 1.