Bergen et al, 21 January 2022
Dylan J. M. Bergen, Qiao Tong, Ankit Shukla, Elis Newham, Jan Zethof, Mischa Lundberg, Rebecca Ryan, Scott E. Youlten, Monika Frysz, Peter I. Croucher, Gert Flik, Rebecca J. Richardson, John P. Kemp, Chrissy L. Hammond & Juriaan R. Metz
Scales are mineralised exoskeletal structures that are part of the dermal skeleton. Scales have been mostly lost during evolution of terrestrial vertebrates whilst bony fish have retained a mineralised dermal skeleton in the form of fin rays and scales. Each scale is a mineralised collagen plate that is decorated with both matrix-building and resorbing cells. When removed, an ontogenetic scale is quickly replaced following differentiation of the scale pocket-lining cells that regenerate a scale. Processes promoting de novo matrix formation and mineralisation initiated during scale regeneration are poorly understood. Therefore, we performed transcriptomic analysis to determine gene networks and their pathways involved in dermal scale regeneration.
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