RESUMO
A small fresh water fish, the Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus) is a novel animal model in evolutionary developmental biology. The existence of morphologically distinct surface and cave morphs of this species allows simultaneous comparative analysis of phenotypic changes at different life stages. The cavefish harbors many favorable constructive traits (i.e., large jaws with an increased number of teeth, neuromast cells, enlarged olfactory pits and excess storage of adipose tissues) and regressive traits (i.e., reduced eye structures and pigmentation) which are essential for cave adaptation. A wide spectrum of natural craniofacial morphologies can be observed among the different cave populations. Recently, the Mexican tetra has been identified as a human disease model. The fully sequenced genome along with modern genome editing tools has allowed researchers to generate transgenic and targeted gene knockouts with phenotypes that resemble human pathological conditions. This review will discuss the anatomy of the craniofacial skeleton of A. mexicanus with a focus on morphologically variable facial bones, jaws that house continuously replacing teeth and pharyngeal skeleton. Furthermore, the possible applications of this model animal in identifying human congenital and metabolic skeletal disorders is addressed. Developmental Dynamics 248:153-161, 2019. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Assuntos
Doenças Ósseas , Osso e Ossos/anatomia & histologia , Characidae/anatomia & histologia , Modelos Animais de Doenças , Adaptação Biológica/genética , Animais , Cavernas , Characidae/genética , Peixes , Humanos , Esqueleto/anatomia & histologia , Crânio/anatomia & histologia , DenteRESUMO
The phenotype of lens-ablated Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus) compared to wild-type surface fish has been described and includes, among other effects, eye degeneration, changes in tooth number and cranial bone changes. Here, we investigate the spatiotemporal expression patterns of several key genes involved in the development of these structures. Specifically, we show that the expression of pitx2, bmp4 and shh is altered in the eye, oral jaw, nasal pit and forebrain in these lens-ablated fish. Furthermore, for the first time, we show altered pitx2 expression in the cavefish, which also has altered eye and tooth phenotypes. We thus provide evidence for a genetic linkage between the eye and tooth modules in this fish species. Furthermore, the altered pitx2 expression pattern, together with the described morphological features of the lens-ablated fish suggests that Astyanax mexicanus could be considered as an alternative teleost model organism in which to study Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome (ARS), a rare autosomal dominant developmental disorder that is associated with PITX2 and which has both ocular and non-ocular abnormalities.
Assuntos
Caraciformes , Proteínas de Peixes , Regulação da Expressão Gênica no Desenvolvimento , Ligação Genética , Cristalino/embriologia , Dente/embriologia , Animais , Segmento Anterior do Olho/anormalidades , Segmento Anterior do Olho/embriologia , Caraciformes/embriologia , Caraciformes/genética , Modelos Animais de Doenças , Anormalidades do Olho/embriologia , Anormalidades do Olho/genética , Oftalmopatias Hereditárias , Proteínas de Peixes/biossíntese , Proteínas de Peixes/genética , Cristalino/patologiaRESUMO
The Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus), a freshwater teleost fish, is an excellent vertebrate model organism to study tooth development, specifically the spatiotemporal events related to the development of the oral and pharyngeal dentitions. In contrast to the coordinated early tooth development in the premaxilla and mandible, the maxillary teeth develop much later in life at 60 dpf. By analysing a growth series of bone and cartilage stained tetra and histological sectioning of the tooth bearing bones, we track the developmental events of tooth development over ontogeny of this animal. Whole mount in situ hybridisation with bone morphogenetic proteins and their inhibitor Noggin was conducted to track the late tooth development events. Our data show that the first generation teeth are small and unicuspid irrespective of their location. Oral jaw teeth become multicuspid and large over ontogeny while the pharyngeal dentition remains unicuspid and disorganised. Tooth eruption occurs late in the maxillary bone. The distinct expression pattern of the BMP antagonist, Noggin, suggests that Noggin plays an inhibitory role by preventing early tooth development in the maxillary bone. These data further support and highlight the use of the Mexican tetra in understanding the spatio-temporal differences in tooth development in vertebrate jaws.
Assuntos
Characidae/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Regulação da Expressão Gênica no Desenvolvimento , Desenvolvimento Maxilofacial/fisiologia , Dente/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Animais , Proteína Morfogenética Óssea 4/genética , Proteína Morfogenética Óssea 4/metabolismo , Proteínas de Transporte/genética , Proteínas de Transporte/metabolismoRESUMO
BACKGROUND: The Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus) has emerged as a good animal model to study the constructive and regressive changes associated with living in cave environments, as both the ancestral sighted morph and the cave dwelling morph are extant. The cave dwelling morphs lack eyes and body pigmentation, but have well developed oral and sensory systems that are essential for survival in dark environments. The cave forms and surface forms are interfertile and give rise to F1 hybrids progeny known as intermediates. In cavefish, degeneration of the lens is one of the key events leading to eye regression. We have previously shown that surgical lens removal in surface fish embryos has an effect on the craniofacial skeleton. Surprisingly, lens removal was also found to have an effect on the caudal teeth in the lower jaw. In order to understand this result, we analyzed the lower jaw and upper jaw dentitions of surface, cavefish and F1 hybrids of surface and cavefish and compared our findings with surface fish that underwent lens removal. We also investigated the upper jaw (premaxillae and maxillae) dentition in these fish. RESULTS: Our tooth analyses shows that cavefish have the highest numbers of teeth in the mandible and maxillae, surface forms have the lowest numbers and F1 hybrids are between these groups. These differences are not observed in the premaxillae. A wide diversity of cuspal morphology can also be found in these fish. Jaw size also differs amongst the groups, with the mandible exhibiting the greatest differences. Interestingly, tooth number in surgery fish is different only in the caudal region of the mandible; this is the region that is constrained in size in all morphs. CONCLUSION: Our data provides the first detailed description of the jaw dentitions of two morphs of Astyanax mexicanus, as well as in F1 hybrids. Tooth number, patterning and cuspal morphology are enhanced in cavefish in all jaws. This is in contrast to the increase in tooth number previously observed on the lens ablated side of the surgery fish. These findings indicate that the mechanisms which govern the constructive traits in cavefish are different to the mechanisms causing an increase tooth number in surgery fish.