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. ? ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32)
Project #
5F32GM078949-02
Application #
7500713
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-F10-H (20))
Program Officer
Portnoy, Matthew
Project Start
2007-09-30
Project End
2009-09-29
Budget Start
2008-09-30
Budget End
2009-09-29
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$56,702
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Oregon
Department
Biology
Type
Organized Research Units
DUNS #
948117312
City
Eugene
State
OR
Country
United States
Zip Code
97403
Small, C M; Bassham, S; Catchen, J et al. (2016) The genome of the Gulf pipefish enables understanding of evolutionary innovations. Genome Biol 17:258
Hohenlohe, Paul A; Bassham, Susan; Currey, Mark et al. (2012) Extensive linkage disequilibrium and parallel adaptive divergence across threespine stickleback genomes. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 367:395-408
Etter, Paul D; Bassham, Susan; Hohenlohe, Paul A et al. (2011) SNP discovery and genotyping for evolutionary genetics using RAD sequencing. Methods Mol Biol 772:157-78
Hohenlohe, Paul A; Bassham, Susan; Etter, Paul D et al. (2010) Population genomics of parallel adaptation in threespine stickleback using sequenced RAD tags. PLoS Genet 6:e1000862