When Whorls Collide: The Development of Hair Patterns in Frizzled 6 Mutant Mice
November 2010
in “
Development
”
TLDR Hair follicles in mutant mice self-organize into ordered patterns within a week.
The study investigated hair pattern development in frizzled 6 mutant mice, revealing that mutations in the frizzled 6 gene disrupted normal hair whorl patterns by affecting the signaling pathways that guide hair follicle orientation. Despite initial randomness, hair follicles reoriented over the first postnatal week to form locally ordered patterns, suggesting a secondary alignment mechanism independent of frizzled 6 and Celsr1 genes. The research highlighted the role of frizzled 6 in planar cell polarity and its importance in maintaining orderly hair arrangement, contributing to the understanding of genetic factors influencing hair pattern formation.
