Figure 5: RA signalling modulates vane morphology and epithelial cell shapes. | Nature Communications

Figure 5: RA signalling modulates vane morphology and epithelial cell shapes.

From: Diverse feather shape evolution enabled by coupling anisotropic signalling modules with self-organizing branching programme

Figure 5

(a) Compared with the controls, RCAS-DNRARβ infected adult chicken primary remiges have significantly reduced vane width and barb-rachis angles, while BGZ width is increased. Boxes highlight vane boundaries. Scale bars: leftmost panel: 5 mm, right three panels: 500 μm. (b) Quantification of feather vane widths (n=4), barb-rachis angles and barb lengths (n=10) in control and DNRARβ infected remiges. Error bars denote s.d. **P<0.01, *P<0.05, NS, not significant. (c) BGZ epithelial cells have more elongated shape at epithelial regions exposed to lower RA levels. Phalloidin labels F-Actin that is mainly localized along epithelial cell boundaries. Scale bar, 50 μm. White lines highlight cell shape differences. (d) Quantification of cell aspect ratio and cell area in BGZ epithelial cells (n=30). Error bars denote s.d. **P<0.01, *P<0.05, NS, not significant.

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