Skin Transcriptome Reveals Dynamic Changes in the Wnt Pathway During Integument Morphogenesis of Chick Embryos

January 2018 in “ PLoS ONE ”

Husile Gong, Hong Wang, YueXing Wang, Xue Bai, Bin Liu, Jinfeng He, Jianghong Wu, Wang-Mei Qi, Wenguang Zhang

TLDR The Wnt signaling pathways change significantly during chick feather development, especially between days 6 and 14.

The study investigated the dynamic changes in gene expression during the integument morphogenesis of chick embryos, focusing on the Wnt signaling pathways. By sequencing the transcriptome of chicken embryo skin samples from day 6 to day 21 of incubation, researchers identified 5,830 differentially expressed genes. The critical period for feather follicle morphogenesis was found to be between embryonic days 6 and 14. The study highlighted significant variations in the expression levels of inhibitors and ligands related to both the canonical and non-canonical Wnt signaling pathways, revealing a staggered phase relationship between these pathways from embryonic days 9 to 14. These findings provided new insights into the gene regulatory mechanisms involved in chicken integument development.

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