Coordinated timing of tooth and jaw development

随着牙齿和颌骨的生长，它们必须配合在一起才能正常工作，才能让动物吃东西。由于牙齿位于颌骨内，颌骨形状或大小的任何发育或进化变化都会影响牙齿，反之亦然。要了解身体部位是如何发展的，就是要了解它可能是如何进化的。目前尚不清楚牙齿和颌骨发育的时机是如何协调的，以便这些部分在出生前和出生后的生长过程中适当地“配合”在一起。我的实验室旨在解释牙齿和颌骨发育的速度是如何以一种协调的方式进化的。一种选择是牙齿发育的时间由颌骨组织的信号控制，反之亦然。然而，良好的证据表明，事实恰恰相反：牙齿和颌骨发育的速度被自然而然地选择为平行运行，牙齿和颌骨组织之间没有串扰。我的建议旨在解决这个研究问题，使用免费的遗传、统计和成像数据，以及出生前和出生后发育不同阶段的哺乳动物模型。为了测试牙齿和颌骨在发育时间方面是否都有自己的非交互遗传控制网络，我的实验室将分析发育中的牙齿和颌骨组织中的基因表达。使用颌骨和牙齿的高分辨率三维计算机断层扫描(CT)图像，并结合统计工具，我们还将测试牙齿开始发育的时间是否取决于发育中的颌骨中它们的空间有多大。我们的研究将开始填补科学知识的一个基本空白，帮助解释颌骨和牙齿发育是如何及时协调的。这一洞见应该进一步阐明牙齿和颌骨是如何在现存和灭绝的哺乳动物中发育和进化出如此令人惊叹的各种不同但具有功能的形式的。

As teeth and jaws grow they must fit together to work properly and allow an animal to eat. Because teeth sit within the jawbone, any developmental or evolutionary changes in jaw shape or size will invariably affect the teeth and vice versa. To understand how a body part develops is to understand how it may have evolved. It is not known how the timing of tooth and jaw development is coordinated such that these parts "fit" together properly during pre- and postnatal growth. My lab aims to explain how the pace of tooth and jaw development has evolved in a coordinated way. One option is that the timing of tooth development is controlled by signals from the jaw tissues, and vice versa. However, good evidence suggests that the opposite is true: the pace of tooth and jaw development has been naturally selected to run in parallel with no cross-talk between tooth and jaw tissues. My proposal aims to tackle this research question using complimentary genetic, statistical and imaging data alongside mammalian models at various stages of pre- and postnatal development. To test if teeth and jaws each have their own non-interacting network of genetic controls with respect to developmental timing, my lab will analyze gene expression in developing tooth and jaw tissues. Using high-resolution 3D computed-tomography (CT) images of jaws and teeth in tandem with statistical tools we will also test if the times at which teeth start to develop are dictated by how much space exists for them in the developing jawbone. Our research will begin to fill a fundamental gap in scientific knowledge by helping to explain how jaw and tooth development is coordinated in time. This insight should further clarify how teeth and jaws have developed and evolved such an amazing variety of different yet functional forms across living and extinct mammals.