1. Academic Validation
  2. Evolution and Developmental Diversity of Skin Spines in Pufferfishes

Evolution and Developmental Diversity of Skin Spines in Pufferfishes

  • iScience. 2019 Sep 27;19:1248-1259. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2019.06.003.
Takanori Shono 1 Alexandre P Thiery 2 Rory L Cooper 2 Daisuke Kurokawa 3 Ralf Britz 4 Masataka Okabe 5 Gareth J Fraser 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Bateson Centre, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK; Department of Anatomy, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Minato, Tokyo 105-8461, Japan.
  • 2 Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Bateson Centre, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
  • 3 Misaki Marine Biological Station, School of Science, University of Tokyo, Miura, Kanagawa 238-0225, Japan.
  • 4 Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
  • 5 Department of Anatomy, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Minato, Tokyo 105-8461, Japan.
  • 6 Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Bateson Centre, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK; Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611, USA. Electronic address: g.fraser@ufl.edu.
Abstract

Teleost fishes develop remarkable varieties of skin ornaments. The developmental basis of these structures is poorly understood. The order Tetraodontiformes includes diverse fishes such as the ocean sunfishes, triggerfishes, and pufferfishes, which exhibit a vast assortment of scale derivatives. Pufferfishes possess some of the most extreme scale derivatives, dermal spines, erected during their characteristic puffing behavior. We demonstrate that pufferfish scale-less spines develop through conserved gene interactions that underlie general vertebrate skin appendage formation, including feathers and hair. Spine development retains conservation of the EDA (ectodysplasin) signaling pathway, important for the development of diverse vertebrate skin appendages, including these modified scale-less spines of pufferfish. Further modification of genetic signaling from both CRISPR-Cas9 and small molecule inhibition leads to loss or reduction of spine coverage, providing a mechanism for skin appendage diversification observed throughout the pufferfishes. Pufferfish spines have evolved broad variations in body coverage, enabling adaptation to diverse ecological niches.

Keywords

Biological Sciences; Evolutionary Biology; Evolutionary Developmental Biology.

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