Publication Date:
2008-06-20
Description:
The vertebrate body axis is subdivided into repeated segments, best exemplified by the vertebrae that derive from embryonic somites. The number of somites is precisely defined for any given species but varies widely from one species to another. To determine the mechanism controlling somite number, we have compared somitogenesis in zebrafish, chicken, mouse and corn snake embryos. Here we present evidence that in all of these species a similar 'clock-and-wavefront' mechanism operates to control somitogenesis; in all of them, somitogenesis is brought to an end through a process in which the presomitic mesoderm, having first increased in size, gradually shrinks until it is exhausted, terminating somite formation. In snake embryos, however, the segmentation clock rate is much faster relative to developmental rate than in other amniotes, leading to a greatly increased number of smaller-sized somites.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gomez, Celine -- Ozbudak, Ertugrul M -- Wunderlich, Joshua -- Baumann, Diana -- Lewis, Julian -- Pourquie, Olivier -- Cancer Research UK/United Kingdom -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2008 Jul 17;454(7202):335-9. doi: 10.1038/nature07020. Epub 2008 Jun 18.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, Missouri 64110, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18563087" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Body Patterning/genetics
;
Chick Embryo/*embryology
;
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
;
Mice/*embryology
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Snakes/*embryology
;
Somites/*embryology
;
Time Factors
;
Zebrafish/*embryology
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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