Hox genes regulate digit patterning by controlling the wavelength of a Turing-type mechanism.

Science

Facultad de Medicina, Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnología de Cantabria, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Sociedad para el Desarrollo Regional de Cantabria-Universidad de Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain.

Published: December 2012

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study explores how stripes and patterns in nature are formed using a reaction-diffusion mechanism, specifically focusing on mouse genetics to understand digit (finger/toe) patterning.
  • The researchers found that reducing specific genes (Hoxa13 and Hoxd11-Hoxd13) in mice leads to increasingly severe polydactyly (extra digits), with changes in digit thickness and spacing.
  • Their findings, combined with computer simulations, suggest that a Turing-type mechanism governs this digit patterning process, linking it to patterns seen in fish fins and indicating that the five-digit structure in mammals evolved from an ancestral patterning system.

Article Abstract

The formation of repetitive structures (such as stripes) in nature is often consistent with a reaction-diffusion mechanism, or Turing model, of self-organizing systems. We used mouse genetics to analyze how digit patterning (an iterative digit/nondigit pattern) is generated. We showed that the progressive reduction in Hoxa13 and Hoxd11-Hoxd13 genes (hereafter referred to as distal Hox genes) from the Gli3-null background results in progressively more severe polydactyly, displaying thinner and densely packed digits. Combined with computer modeling, our results argue for a Turing-type mechanism underlying digit patterning, in which the dose of distal Hox genes modulates the digit period or wavelength. The phenotypic similarity with fish-fin endoskeleton patterns suggests that the pentadactyl state has been achieved through modification of an ancestral Turing-type mechanism.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4486416PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1226804DOI Listing

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