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Dental patterns in vertebrates range from absence of teeth to multiple sets of teeth that are replaced throughout life. Despite this great variation, most of our understanding of tooth development is derived from studies on just a few model organisms. Here we introduce the reptile as an excellent model in which to study the molecular basis for early dental specification and, most importantly, for...
The mouse, as a genetically defined and easily manipulated model organism, has played a critical role in unraveling the mechanisms of craniofacial development and dysmorphology. While numerous gene knockout strains that display craniofacial abnormalities and essential recombinase tool strains with craniofacial‐specific expression have been generated, many are absent from public repositories. Large‐scale,...
Images of craniofacial development from frog, fish, chick and mouse embryos, provided by the authors of this special issue. Please read the articles for details.
Neurogenic placodes are transient, thickened patches of embryonic vertebrate head ectoderm that give rise to the paired peripheral sense organs and most neurons in cranial sensory ganglia. We present the first analysis of gene expression during neurogenic placode development in a basal actinopterygian (ray‐finned fish), the North American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula). Pax3 expression in the profundal...
Podosomes and invadopodia are actin‐rich protrusions of the plasma membrane important for matrix degradation and cell migration. Most of the information in this field has been obtained in cancer cells, where the presence of invadopodia has been related to increased invasiveness and metastatic potential. The importance of the related podosome structure in other pathological or physiological processes...
Despite advances in the knowledge of tooth morphogenesis and differentiation, relatively little is known about the aetiology and molecular mechanisms underlying supernumerary tooth formation. A small number of supernumerary teeth may be a common developmental dental anomaly, while multiple supernumerary teeth usually have a genetic component and they are sometimes thought to represent a partial third...
Cranial development is critically influenced by the relative growth of distinct elements. Previous studies have shown that the transcription factor Foxg1 is essential the for development of the telencephalon, olfactory epithelium, parts of the eye and the ear. Here we investigate the effects of a Foxg1‐cre‐mediated conditional deletion of Dicer1 and microRNA (miRNA) depletion on mouse embryos. We...
Epithelial invagination in many model systems is driven by apical cell constriction, mediated by actin and myosin II contraction regulated by GTPase activity. Here we investigate apical constriction during chick lens placode invagination. Inhibition of actin polymerization and myosin II activity by cytochalasin D or blebbistatin prevents lens invagination. To further verify if lens placode invaginate...
The number of transgenic mouse lines expressing Cre in either type of pigment cells (melanocytes and retinal pigment epithelium, RPE) is limited, and the available lines do not always offer sufficient specificity. In this study, we addressed this issue and we report on the generation of a MART‐1::Cre BAC transgenic mouse line, in which the expression of Cre recombinase is controlled by regulatory...
The closely related C. elegans MEG‐1 and MEG‐2 proteins localize to P granules during a brief period of embryogenesis when the germ lineage is being separated from the soma. Embryonic primordial germ cells still develop in the absence of MEG activity, but major defects emerge during larval stages when germ cells fail to proliferate or differentiate normally, resulting in sterility. To investigate...
The fluorescent marking of immature (blue) and hypertrophic (red) chondrocytes in an E17.5 mouse embryo by the Collagen, type II, alpha 1 promoter driving the expression of enhanced cyan fluorescent protein (blue) and the Collagen, type X, alpha 1 BAC driving the expression of mCherry fluorescent protein (red), respectively. See the article by Maye et al. in this issue.
We report here on the generation of a new fluorescent protein reporter transgenic mouse line, Col10a1‐mCherry, which can be used as a tool to study chondrocyte biology and pathology. Collagen, Type X, alpha 1 (Col10a1) is highly expressed in hypertrophic chondrocytes and commonly used as a gene marker for this cell population. The Col10a1‐mCherry reporter line was generated using a bacterial recombination...
The Odd‐skipped related 1 (Osr1) gene encodes a zinc finger protein homologous to the Drosophila Odd‐skipped transcription factor. During mouse embryogenesis, Osr1 is expressed in multiple tissues, including the developing heart, kidney, limb, lung, and craniofacial structures. Although characterization of targeted mutant mice has revealed essential roles for Osr1 in heart and kidney development,...
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in humans. It affects 1% of the population over 65‐years old. Its causes are environmental and genetic. As the world population ages, there is an urgent need for better and more detailed animal models for this kind of disease. In this work we show that the use of transgenic Drosophila is comparable to more complicated and...
Postovulatory mammalian oocytes age significantly in culture. B6D2F1 or ICR strain mouse oocytes were collected 16 h after hCG injection and then cultured for up to 40 h post hCG at 37°C under 5% CO2 in air. After intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), B6D2F1 and ICR oocytes lost full‐term developmental potential by 30 h and 26 h after hCG administration, respectively. However, using supplementation...
We report the creation of a transgenic dog that conditionally expresses eGFP (enhanced green fluorescent protein) under the regulation of doxycycline. Briefly, fetal fibroblasts infected with a Tet‐on eGFP vector were used for somatic cell nuclear transfer. Subsequently reconstructed oocytes were transferred to recipients. Three clones having transgenes were born and one dog was alive. The dog showed...
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common form of inherited mental retardation and is caused by the loss of function for Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP), a selective RNA‐binding protein with a demonstrated role in the localized translation of target mRNAs at synapses. Several recent studies provide compelling evidence for a new role of FMRP in the development of the nervous system, during...
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