Kondo Shigeru, Iwashita Motoko, Yamaguchi Motoomi
Osaka University, Suita, Japan.
Int J Dev Biol. 2009;53(5-6):851-6. doi: 10.1387/ijdb.072502sk.
It is more than fifty years since Alan Turing first presented the reaction-diffusion (RD) model, to account for the mechanism of biological pattern formation. In the paper entitled "The chemical basis of morphogenesis", Turing concluded that spatial patterns autonomously made in the embryo are generated as the stationary wave of the chemical (cellular) reactions. Although this novel idea was paid little attention by experimental biologists, recent experimental data are suggesting that the RD mechanism really functions in some of the course of animal development. Among the phenomena in which involvement of the RD mechanism is suspected, the striped pigment pattern of zebrafish has been highlighted as an ideal model system for the following reasons: the stationary wave made by the RD mechanism stays alive and can be observed only in the fish skin; and in zebrafish, we can utilize genomic information and molecular genetic techniques to clarify the molecular basis of pattern formation. In this review, we summarize recent progresses in the study of zebrafish pigment pattern formation that is uncovering how the RD wave is made and maintained in the skin.
自艾伦·图灵首次提出反应扩散（RD）模型以解释生物模式形成的机制以来，已经过去了五十多年。在题为《形态发生的化学基础》的论文中，图灵得出结论，胚胎中自主形成的空间模式是作为化学（细胞）反应的驻波产生的。尽管这一新颖的想法很少受到实验生物学家的关注，但最近的实验数据表明，RD机制在动物发育的某些过程中确实发挥着作用。在怀疑RD机制参与的现象中，斑马鱼的条纹色素模式因其以下原因而被突出作为一个理想的模型系统：由RD机制产生的驻波是鲜活的，并且只能在鱼的皮肤中观察到；而且在斑马鱼中，我们可以利用基因组信息和分子遗传技术来阐明模式形成的分子基础。在这篇综述中，我们总结了斑马鱼色素模式形成研究的最新进展，这些进展揭示了RD波是如何在皮肤中产生和维持的。
