Wu Ping, Bocci Federico, Guerrero-Juarez Christian F, Chen Chih-Kuan, Wang George, Liu Tzu-Yu, Lu Jiayi, Li Shu-Man Hsieh, Lai Yung-Chih, Jiang Ting-Xin, Widelitz Randall B, Lei Ming-Xing, Lander Arthur D, Nie Qing, Chuong Cheng-Ming
Department of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
Sci Adv. 2025 Aug 22;11(34):eadw2382. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adw2382.
The regulation of organ size is a fundamental biological question. This study investigates how feather length is regulated in chickens. We found that collar bulge stem cell zones vary in size: main sickle > lesser sickle > contour feathers. During growth, and signaling are highly expressed, while , , and increase toward growth termination. Functional assays show that insulin-like growth factor/fibroblast growth factor signaling promotes feather elongation via tyrosine kinase receptor signaling. Single-cell RNA sequencing analysis reveals accelerated differentiation of keratinocytes in short contour feathers compared to long sickle feathers. In Phoenix chickens, superlong main sickle feathers exhibit specialized stem cell zones with enhanced expression and expanded intermediate-layer cell clusters with dynamic interactions involving /, , and WNT signaling in progenitor zones in the proximal follicle. Perturbation experiments induce short feather phenotypes arrested at various stages, shedding light on versatile regulatory mechanisms and paving the way for functional control of diverse feather lengths.
器官大小的调控是一个基本的生物学问题。本研究调查了鸡羽毛长度是如何调控的。我们发现羽领凸起干细胞区的大小各不相同：主镰羽 > 次镰羽 > 正羽。在生长过程中， 和 信号高度表达，而 、 和 在生长终止时增加。功能分析表明，胰岛素样生长因子/成纤维细胞生长因子信号通过酪氨酸激酶受体信号促进羽毛伸长。单细胞RNA测序分析显示，与长镰羽相比，短正羽中的角质形成细胞分化加速。在凤头鸡中，超长的主镰羽表现出特化的干细胞区，其 表达增强，中间层细胞簇扩大，在近端毛囊的祖细胞区存在涉及 /、 和WNT信号的动态相互作用。扰动实验诱导出在不同阶段停滞的短羽表型，揭示了多种调控机制，并为不同羽毛长度的功能控制铺平了道路。
