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Bad hair days for mouse PCP mutants

Mammalian hairs have characteristic patterns of orientation, with a predominantly rostral to caudal direction, occasional swirls and a high level of local correlation between hairs. A detailed new study demonstrates that the polarity of hairs derives from an underlying planar polarity of the basal epidermal cells from which hair follicles arise.

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Figure 1: PCP in the Drosophila wing and eye, and the mammalian vestibular epithelium.
Figure 2: PCP in mammalian hair germs.

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Axelrod, J. Bad hair days for mouse PCP mutants. Nat Cell Biol 10, 1251–1253 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1108-1251

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