Development and morphogenesis of visual system is a complicated procedure, and the gene regulation is widely paid attentions by neurodevelopmental biologists. Vax (ventral anterior homeobox) family was found in 1998, which is related to development of forebrain, optic vesicle, eye-predium, optic stalk and neuroretina. Vax-1 is involved in differentiation of pigmented epithelium and optic stalk, while Vax-2 could function in the establishment of the dorso-ventral axis of the retina and visual system. Investigation of Vax genes will be helpful to understand the mechanism of molecular events, which happened during the early development of the visual system.