QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online March 7, 2005

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Development Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Making a bird's crowning glory

Feathers are a defining feature of birds but their size, colour, shape and arrangement varies widely between species. Feather morphogenesis involves reciprocal signalling between the dermis and epidermis of the feather bud, but it is unclear how species-specific feather differences are generated. Now, Eames and Schneider report that premigratory neural crest cells transplanted from quails into ducks form dermis that instructs the host epidermis to form quail-like feather buds, and vice-versa (see p. 1499). Quail and duck have distinct feather patterns and divergent growth rates. The researchers show that in quail-duck chimeras, donor neural-crest-derived dermis alters the spatial pattern and time of formation of host cranial feathers by altering the expression of members and targets of the bone morphogenetic protein, sonic hedgehog and delta/notch pathways. The researchers suggest that this marked spatiotemporal plasticity in feather development might facilitate feather evolution.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

Related articles in Development:

Quail-duck chimeras reveal spatiotemporal plasticity in molecular and histogenic programs of cranial feather development

B. Frank Eames and Richard A. Schneider
Development 2005 132: 1499-1509. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Development Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?