Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Lucas Heights, Australia.
Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2017 May 17;7(1):1998. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-01878-y.
The highly organized morphogenesis of bird feathers holds important phylo- and ontogenetic information on the evolution of birds, organogenesis, tissue regeneration, and the health status of individual animals. Altered topobiological patterns are regularly used as retrospective evidence for disturbed developmental trajectories due to the past exposure to environmental stressors. Using the most advanced high-resolution (5-70 µm) X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM), we describe in the feathers from three species of Procellariiformes hitherto unknown, depositions of elements (Zn, Ca, Br, Cu, Fe) that are independent of pigmentation or any underlying variation in density or polymer structure. In the case of Zn, the pattern across several species of Procellariiformes, but not other species, consisted of highly regular bands of Zn numbering 30-32, which may reflect the estimated number of days of active feather growth or the duration of the moult period. Thus, speculatively, the highly consistent Zn pattern might be the result of a so far unknown diurnal systemic regulation rather than local heterogeneity amongst the follicular stem cells.
鸟类羽毛高度组织化的形态发生对于鸟类的进化、器官发生、组织再生以及个体动物的健康状况具有重要的系统发生和个体发生信息。由于过去暴露于环境胁迫，改变的拓扑生物学模式经常被用作发育轨迹受到干扰的回溯证据。使用最先进的高分辨率（5-70 μm）X 射线荧光显微镜（XFM），我们在三种迄今未知的海燕目鸟类的羽毛中描述了与色素沉着或任何基础密度或聚合物结构变化无关的元素（Zn、Ca、Br、Cu、Fe）的沉积。就 Zn 而言，海燕目的几种物种中存在着高度规则的 Zn 带，数量为 30-32 个，这可能反映了活跃羽毛生长的估计天数或换羽期的持续时间。因此，推测性地说，高度一致的 Zn 模式可能是迄今为止未知的昼夜系统性调节的结果，而不是卵泡干细胞之间的局部异质性。
