This experiment confirmed that the average area of the rod-like somata in rd7 is approximately 30% larger than that of wild-type rod somata (mean area in rd7 was 9.75 ± 1.36 (standard deviation) μm2, compared to wild-type rods, with 7.53 ± 0.72 μm2 ; n = 50; p = 7.6 × 10–16, Student's t-test).