Pattern regulation in the stripe of zebrafish suggests an underlying dynamic and autonomous mechanism

*Laboratory for Positional Information, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, 2-2-3 Minatojima-Minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0047, Japan

Edited by Hans Meinhardt, Max-Planck-Institut für Entwicklungsbiologie, Tübingen, Germany, and accepted by the Editorial Board January 22, 2007 (received for review September 6, 2006)

Abstract

The mechanism by which animal markings are formed is an intriguing problem that has remained unsolved for a long time. One of the most important questions is whether the positional information for the pattern formation is derived from a covert prepattern or an autonomous mechanism. In this study, using the zebrafish as the model system, we attempted to answer this classic question. We ablated the pigment cells in limited areas of zebrafish skin by using laser irradiation, and we observed the regeneration of the pigmentation pattern. Depending on the area ablated, different patterns regenerated in a specific time course. The regenerated patterns and the transition of the stripes during the regeneration process suggest that pattern formation is independent of the prepattern; furthermore, pattern formation occurs by an autonomous mechanism that satisfies the condition of “local self-enhancement and long-range inhibition.” Because the zebrafish is the only striped animal for which detailed molecular genetic studies have been conducted, our finding will facilitate the identification of the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie skin pattern formation.

Footnotes

^§To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: skondo{at}bio.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Author contributions: M.Y. and S.K. designed research; M.Y. performed research; E.Y. analyzed data; and M.Y. wrote the paper.
↵ ^†Present address: Laboratory for Evolutionary Morphology, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, 2-2-3 Minatojima-Minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0047, Japan.
↵ ^‡Present address: Division of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS direct submission. H.M. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.
↵ ¶ Although we used the regular term “RD mechanism” in this article, it should be noted that the ability to generate patterns is restricted to a specific class of reactions; for example, those in which self-enhancement is coupled with a long-ranged antagonistic effect (6).
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0607790104/DC1.
Abbreviation:

RD,

reaction–diffusion.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.