PUBLICATION

Changing clothes easily: connexin41.8 regulates skin pattern variation

Authors
Watanabe, M., and Kondo, S.
ID
ZDB-PUB-120209-9
Date
2012
Source
Pigment cell & melanoma research   25(3): 326-330 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Kondo, Shigeru
Keywords
connexin, gap junction, reaction-diffusion, skin pattern, zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Acinonyx/physiology
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Body Patterning/genetics*
  • Body Patterning/physiology
  • Clothing
  • Connexins/genetics
  • Connexins/metabolism
  • Connexins/physiology*
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian
  • Equidae/physiology
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/physiology
  • Models, Biological
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Panthera/physiology
  • Skin Pigmentation/genetics*
  • Skin Pigmentation/physiology
  • Species Specificity
  • Tetraodontiformes/physiology
  • Zebrafish/genetics
  • Zebrafish/metabolism
  • Zebrafish/physiology
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
  • Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
  • Zebrafish Proteins/physiology*
PubMed
22313791 Full text @ Pigment Cell Melanoma Res.
Abstract

The skin patterns of animals are very important for their survival, yet the mechanisms involved in skin pattern formation remain unresolved. Turing’s reaction-diffusion model presents a well-known mathematical explanation of how animal skin patterns are formed, and this model can predict various animal patterns that are observed in nature. In this study, we used transgenic zebrafish to generate various artificial skin patterns including a narrow stripe with a wide interstripe, a narrow stripe with a narrow interstripe, a labyrinth, and a “leopard” pattern (or donut-like ring pattern). In this process, connexin41.8 (or its mutant form) was ectopically expressed using the mitfa promoter. Specifically, the leopard pattern was generated as predicted by Turing’s model. Our results demonstrate that the pigment cells in animal skin have the potential and plasticity to establish various patterns and that the reaction-diffusion principle can predict skin patterns of animals.

Genes / Markers
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Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
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Mapping