PUBLICATION
Is pigment patterning in fish skin determined by the Turing mechanism?
- Authors
- Watanabe, M., Kondo, S.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-141230-5
- Date
- 2015
- Source
- Trends in genetics : TIG 31(2): 88-96 (Review)
- Registered Authors
- Kondo, Shigeru, Watanabe, Masakatsu
- Keywords
- Turing mechanism, pigmentation pattern, reaction-diffusion, zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Body Patterning*
- Cell Communication
- Fishes/physiology*
- Models, Biological
- Skin Pigmentation*
- Zebrafish/physiology
- PubMed
- 25544713 Full text @ Trends Genet.
Citation
Watanabe, M., Kondo, S. (2015) Is pigment patterning in fish skin determined by the Turing mechanism?. Trends in genetics : TIG. 31(2):88-96.
Abstract
More than half a century ago, Alan Turing postulated that pigment patterns may arise from a mechanism that could be mathematically modeled based on the diffusion of two substances that interact with each other. Over the past 15 years, the molecular and genetic tools to verify this prediction have become available. Here, we review experimental studies aimed at identifying the mechanism underlying pigment pattern formation in zebrafish. Extensive molecular genetic studies in this model organism have revealed the interactions between the pigment cells that are responsible for the patterns. The mechanism discovered is substantially different from that predicted by the mathematical model, but it retains the property of 'local activation and long-range inhibition', a necessary condition for Turing pattern formation. Although some of the molecular details of pattern formation remain to be elucidated, current evidence confirms that the underlying mechanism is mathematically equivalent to the Turing mechanism.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping