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Cranial skeletal biology

Nature volume 423, pages 326–331 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

To artists, the face is a mirror of the soul. To biologists, the face reflects remarkable structural diversity — think of bulldogs and wolfhounds or galapagos finches. How do such variations in skeletal form arise? Do the same mechanisms control skeletogenesis elsewhere in the body? The answers lie in the molecular machinery that generates neural crest cells, controls their migration, and guides their differentiation to cartilage and bone.

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Figure 1: Experimental approaches to skeletal patterning.
Figure 2: Contributions of neural crest to beak morphology.
Figure 3: Contributions of epithelia to craniofacial patterning.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge helpful discussions with R. Marcucio, C. Kimmel, T. Schilling, M. Bronner-Fraser, D. Noden, M. Longaker, Y. Chai and R. Maxson. This work was supported by NIH grants to J.A.H. and R.A.S.

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  1. University of California at San Francisco, Room U-453, 533 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, 94143-0514, California, USA

    J. A. Helms & R. A. Schneider

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Correspondence to J. A. Helms.

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Helms, J., Schneider, R. Cranial skeletal biology. Nature 423, 326–331 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01656

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