How the mouse got its stripes

摘要

A central issue in developmental biology is the understanding of how various processes interact to produce spatio-temporal patterns in the embryo. To even observe these dynamical patterns directly is a challenge and, although technological advances in, for example, imaging techniques are beginning to address this problem, it is still far from trivial. A new strain of mouse that is deficient in hair formation now makes it possible to visualize directly traveling waves of pigmentation propagating over the skin of the mouse. This new study adds an extra dimension to the challenge of elucidating the mechanisms that underlie embryonic pattern formation and provides further evidence for self-organization.