Figures
Patterning synovial joints in vertebrates.
Skeletons contain hundreds of joints that are crucial for movement of different bones in the body. Regulatory studies of a key developmental and arthritis risk factor gene (Gdf5) have now identified a battery of distinct non-coding enhancers that control expression in particular joints, including specific joints in the head, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees (left transgenic reporter mouse embryo), versus fingers and toes in the forelimb and hindlimb (right transgenic embryo carrying a different construct). Changes in individual joint control sequences may underlie localized evolutionary changes in vertebrate limbs, or susceptibility to arthritis in certain parts of the skeleton. See Chen, Capellini et al.
Download November’s cover page here.
Image Credit: Chen, Capellini et al.
Citation: (2016) PLoS Genetics Issue Image | Vol. 12(11) November 2016. PLoS Genet 12(11): ev12.i11. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pgen.v12.i11
Published: November 30, 2016
Copyright: © 2016 Chen, Capellini et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Skeletons contain hundreds of joints that are crucial for movement of different bones in the body. Regulatory studies of a key developmental and arthritis risk factor gene (Gdf5) have now identified a battery of distinct non-coding enhancers that control expression in particular joints, including specific joints in the head, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees (left transgenic reporter mouse embryo), versus fingers and toes in the forelimb and hindlimb (right transgenic embryo carrying a different construct). Changes in individual joint control sequences may underlie localized evolutionary changes in vertebrate limbs, or susceptibility to arthritis in certain parts of the skeleton. See Chen, Capellini et al.
Download November’s cover page here.
Image Credit: Chen, Capellini et al.