动物黑色素细胞及其相关性状形成机制的研究进展

Research Advances on the Formation Mechanism of Animal Melanocytes and Its Related Traits

黑色素细胞是合成黑色素的细胞,由其前体细胞黑色素母细胞分化而来,胚胎期黑色素母细胞的形成有两次,一次是具有黑色素细胞特性的神经嵴细胞沿背外侧迁移而形成,另一次是由沿腹侧迁移的神经嵴细胞亚细胞雪旺氏细胞前体(Schwann cell precursors,SCPs)受到某种信号诱导后形成,这是皮肤中黑色素细胞形成的主要方式。黑色素细胞的形成与动物毛发颜色及其他重要经济性状密切相关,其形成的增多或减少,异位形成或异位侵袭均可能导致相应的疾病,但脊椎动物中具有典型黑色素细胞异位形成特征的乌骨鸡却繁衍至今,而且是重要的食用和药用经济动物。探索黑色素细胞的形成及其对相关性状的影响不但能为动物经济性状育种提供相关理论基础,也可为相关疾病的治疗提供理论依据。作者从黑色素细胞的来源及其形成过程中参与的信号因子来探讨其形成机制,并对黑色素细胞相关性状的形成机制尤其是乌质性状进行综述。

Melanocytes are melanin-producing cells that are differentiated from their precursor melanoblasts.Melanoblasts are formed in two migration pathways in embryonic stage.The first is dorsolateral pathway which neural crests take when they are specified as melanoblasts,the second is ventral pathway where Schwann cell precursors(SCPs),a sub-cellular neural stem cell,are formed,and induced to differentiate into melanoblasts,and melanoblasts from SCP are the major source melanocytes in the skin.The formation of melanocytes is closely related to animal hair color and other important economic traits,and the increase or decrease of melanocyte formation,ectopic formation or ectopic invasion may lead to the corresponding disease,but Silky fowl,a vertebrate which has typical ectopic melanocytes is healthy,and is an economic breed for food and me-dicinal usage.Exploring the formation mechanism of melanocytes and its influencing factors,as well as the ectopic formation of melanocytes not only provides informative theoretical basis for the breeding of animal economic traits but also provides a very important theoretical basis for the treatment of related diseases.This paper would explore the cell origin of melanocyte and the factors affecting the melanocytes formation from different origin,and discuss the formation mechanism of melanocyte-related traits,especially the black characteristics of Silky fowl.