Teng, C.S. et al. eLife doi: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.37024 (2018)

Children born with Saethre-Chotzen syndrome experience premature fusion of the bones of their skull, which impedes the growth of the brain and the symmetrical development of the head and face. It’s a rare genetic disease caused by mutations in one of two genes involved in the development of cranial sutures, the sites where cranial bones come together. Mouse models can recapitulate the syndrome, but only offer researchers a post-natal view.

To study potential pre-natal factors that could influence Saethre-Chotzen syndrome, researchers at the University of Southern California developed a zebrafish model. Even though different cell lineages are involved in the fish and in mammals, the underlying processes that direct cranial suture development and fusion appear to be conserved: mutant zebrafish developed cranial defects, related to abnormalities in their stem cells, early in their embryonic development.