PUBLICATION
Formation of the adult pigment pattern in zebrafish requires leopard and obelix dependent cell interactions
- Authors
- Maderspacher, F. and Nüsslein-Volhard, C.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-030702-2
- Date
- 2003
- Source
- Development (Cambridge, England) 130(15): 3447-3457 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Maderspacher, Florian, Nüsslein-Volhard, Christiane
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Skin Pigmentation/physiology*
- Cell Transplantation
- Animals
- Melanophores/physiology
- Cell Communication/physiology*
- Zebrafish/growth & development*
- Blastula/cytology
- PubMed
- 12810592 Full text @ Development
Citation
Maderspacher, F. and Nüsslein-Volhard, C. (2003) Formation of the adult pigment pattern in zebrafish requires leopard and obelix dependent cell interactions. Development (Cambridge, England). 130(15):3447-3457.
Abstract
Colour patterns are a prominent feature of many animals and are of high evolutionary relevance. In zebrafish, the adult pigment pattern comprises alternating stripes of two pigment cell types, melanophores and xanthophores. How the stripes are defined and a straight boundary is formed remains elusive. We find that mutants lacking one pigment cell type lack a striped pattern. Instead, cells of one type form characteristic patterns by homotypic interactions. Using mosaic analysis , we show that juxtaposition of melanophores and xanthophores suffices to restore stripe formation locally. Based on this, we have analysed the pigment pattern of two adult specific mutants: leopard and obelix. We demonstrate that obelix is required in melanophores to promote their aggregation and controls boundary integrity. By contrast, leopard regulates homotypic interaction within both melanophores and xanthophores, and interaction between the two, thus controlling boundary shape. These findings support a view in which cell-cell interactions among pigment cells are the major driving force for adult pigment pattern formation.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping