PUBLICATION

The chinless mutation and neural crest cell interactions in zebrafish jaw development

Authors
Schilling, T.F., Walker, C., and Kimmel, C.B.
ID
ZDB-PUB-961014-987
Date
1996
Source
Development (Cambridge, England)   122: 1417-1426 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Kimmel, Charles B., Schilling, Tom, Walker, Charline
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Branchial Region/embryology
  • Cartilage/embryology
  • Cell Communication*
  • Cell Lineage
  • Embryonic Induction
  • Jaw/embryology*
  • Mesoderm/physiology
  • Mosaicism
  • Musculoskeletal System/embryology
  • Mutation*
  • Neural Crest/cytology
  • Neural Crest/embryology*
  • Time Factors
  • Tissue Transplantation
  • Zebrafish/embryology*
  • Zebrafish/genetics
PubMed
8625830 Full text @ Development
Abstract
During vertebrate development, neural crest cells are thought to pattern many aspects of head organization, including the segmented skeleton and musculature of the jaw and gills. Here we describe mutations at the gene chinless, chn, that disrupt the skeletal fates of neural crest cells in the head of the zebrafish and their interactions with muscle precursors. chn mutants lack neural-crest-derived cartilage and mesoderm- derived muscles in all seven pharyngeal arches. Fate mapping and gene expression studies demonstrate the presence of both undifferentiated cartilage and muscle precursors in mutants. However, chn blocks differentiation directly in neural crest, and not in mesoderm, as revealed by mosaic analyses. Neural crest cells taken from wild-type donor embryos can form cartilage when transplanted into chn mutant hosts and rescue some of the patterning defects of mutant pharyngeal arches. In these cases, cartilage only forms if neural crest is transplanted at least one hour before its migration, suggesting that interactions occur transiently in early jaw precursors. In contrast, transplanted cells in paraxial mesoderm behave according to the host genotype; mutant cells form jaw muscles in a wild-type environment. These results suggest that chn is required for the development of pharyngeal cartilages from cranial neural crest cells and subsequent crest signals that pattern mesodermally derived myocytes.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping