Cryptic patterning of avian skin confers a developmental facility for loss of neck feathering.

ABSTRACT: Vertebrate skin is characterized by its patterned array of appendages, whether feathers, hairs, or scales. In avian skin the distribution of feathers occurs on two distinct spatial levels. Grouping of feathers within discrete tracts, with bare skin lying between the tracts, is termed the macropattern, while the smaller scale periodic spacing between individual feathers is referred to as the micropattern. The degree of integration between the patterning mechanisms that operate on these two scales during development and the mechanisms underlying the remarkable evolvability of skin macropatterns are unknown. A striking example of macropattern variation is the convergent loss of neck feathering in multiple species, a trait associated with heat tolerance in both wild and domestic birds. In chic

SUBMITTER: Mou C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3057954 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature