Heterochronic development of cranial neural crest and jaw primordium in marsupials

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24570228
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Developmental biology
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: WAKAMATSU YOSHIO 東北大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 講師 (60311560)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SUZUKI Kunihiro 日本大学, 歯学部, 教授 (30256903)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 哺乳類 / 進化 / 有袋類 / 神経堤 / 顎 / エンハンサー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Because marsupial neonates are immature at birth, compared to those of placental mammals, they must travel into pouch and suckle on mother’s milk to complete the rest of development. Thus, forelimbs and jaw elements develop early in marsupials. To understand this temporal shift of the developmental program in marsupials, we analyzed cranial neural crest development in opossum embryos. We found that the Sox9 expression in opossum cranial neural crest starts earlier and persists longer in the neural crest-derived mesenchyme of jaw primordium, compared to those in mouse or chicken (see Wakamatsu et al., 2014). We also found that a marsupial-specific mutation in the neural crest enhancer of Sox9 gene, is responsible for the early expression of Sox9 in the cranial neural crest of opossum embryos.

Free Research Field

発生生物学