Signals from the brain and olfactory epithelium control shaping of the mammalian nasal capsule cartilage
Abstract
Facial shape is the basis for facial recognition and categorization. Facial features reflect the underlying geometry of the skeletal structures. Here we reveal that cartilaginous nasal capsule (corresponding to upper jaw and face) is shaped by signals generated by neural structures: brain and olfactory epithelium. Brain-derived Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) enables the induction of nasal septum and posterior nasal capsule, whereas the formation of a capsule roof is controlled by signals from the olfactory epithelium. Unexpectedly, the cartilage of the nasal capsule turned out to be important for shaping membranous facial bones during development. This suggests that conserved neurosensory structures could benefit from protection and have evolved signals inducing cranial cartilages encasing them. Experiments with mutant mice revealed that the genomic regulatory regions controlling production of SHH in the nervous system contribute to facial cartilage morphogenesis, which might be a mechanism responsible for the adaptive evolution of animal faces and snouts.
Data availability
All data obtained including tomographic reconstructions will be freely available upon request since some datasets are considerably heavy (1TB and more) and depositing the full data is unfeasible. We have made a subset of the datasets available on the Dryad Digital Repository (http://datadryad.org/review?doi=doi:10.5061/dryad.f1s76f2).
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Data from: Signals from the brain and olfactory epithelium control shaping of the mammalian nasal capsule cartilageAvailable at Dryad Digital Repository under a CC0 Public Domain Dedication.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Vetenskapsrådet
- Julian Petersen
- Andrei S Chagin
- Igor Adameyko
Svenska Sällskapet för Medicinsk Forskning
- Marketa Kaucka
Bertil Hållstens Forskningsstiftelse
- Igor Adameyko
Åke Wiberg Stiftelse
- Igor Adameyko
Karolinska Institutet
- Ulrika Marklund
- Andrei S Chagin
- Kaj Fried
- Igor Adameyko
Ministerstvo Vnitra České Republiky
- Marketa Tesarova
- Tomas Zikmund
Central European Institute of Technology
- Marketa Tesarova
- Tomas Zikmund
Grantová Agentura České Republiky
- Maria Hovorakova
H2020 European Research Council (680037)
- Anna Kicheva
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All animal work was approved and permitted by the Local Ethical Committee on Animal Experiments (North Stockholm Animal Ethics Committee) and conducted according to The Swedish Animal Agency´s Provisions and Guidelines for Animal Experimentation recommendations. Permit numbers S40/13 and N226/15, granted by South Stockholm Animal Ethics Committee.The part, which was done in Austria at the Medical University of Vienna and IST was performed in accordance with license BMWFW-66.018/0006-WF/V/3b/2016 and BMWFW-66.009/0163-WF/V/3b/2016 granted by the Austrian BMWFW.
Copyright
© 2018, Kaucka et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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