title: Regionalisation of the skin.
abstract: The skin displays marked anatomical variation in thickness, colour and in the appendages that it carries. These regional distinctions arise in the embryo, likely founded on a combinatorial positional code of transcription factor expression. Throughout adult life, the skin's distinct anatomy is maintained through both cell autonomous epigenetic processes and by mesenchymal-epithelial induction. Despite the readily apparent anatomical differences in skin characteristics across the body, several fundamental questions regarding how such regional differences first arise and then persist are unresolved. However, it is clear that the skin's positional code is at the molecular level far more detailed than that discernible at the phenotypic level. This provides a latent reservoir of anatomical complexity ready to surface if perturbed by mutation, hormonal changes, ageing or experiment.
authors.affiliation: The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, EH25 9RG, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Jeanette A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.affiliation: The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, EH25 9RG, United Kingdom. Electronic address: denis.headon@roslin.ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Denis J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Headon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000078404:Epidermal Cells; D004817:Epidermis / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; D006801:Humans; D012867:Skin / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000166:cytology
keywords: Feather; HOX; Hair; Pattern; Skin