Mechanisms of dermoskeletal development in fish

描述（由申请人提供）：关于几类脊椎动物真皮骨的发育和可能的进化起源的长期假设尚未得到验证。现存鱼类的鳞片和颅后皮骨与牙齿和鳍条有共同的进化起源吗？产生鳞片和骨板的成骨细胞是否起源于躯干神经嵴（一种被广泛认为缺乏成骨潜力的组织）？什么样的诱导组织和信号产生鳞屑的模式？我建议解决这些问题的分子遗传机制的分析，启动和模式的后颅骨真皮板装甲Gasterosteiform鱼，threespine棘鱼和海湾海龙，并与实验胚胎学方法，以确定起源的细胞和信号参与这些板的发展。这一分析将有助于目前信息很少的鱼体壁发育领域。此外，这些实验很可能为人类颅面和骨骼发育的研究提供有意义的信息，因为Gasterosteiform骨板与颅骨真皮骨具有结构和发育相似性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Long-standing hypotheses concerning the development and likely evolutionary origin of several classes of vertebrate dermal bone remain untested. Do scales and post-cranial dermal bones of extant fishes share a common evolutionary origin with teeth and fin rays? Do the osteogenic cells that produce scales and plates originate in the trunk neural crest, a tissue widely considered to lack osteogenic potential? What are the inducing tissues and signals that generate the pattern of squamation? I propose to address these questions with an analysis of molecular genetic mechanisms that initiate and pattern the post-cranial bony dermal plates of armored Gasterosteiform fish, the threespine stickleback and gulf pipefish, and with experimental embryological approaches to identify the origins of cells and signals involved in the development of these plates. This analysis will contribute to the field of fish integument development for which little information is currently available. In addition, these experiments are likely to meaningfully inform the study of human craniofacial and bone development, as Gasterosteiform bony plates share structural and developmental similarity with cranial dermal bones.