Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Misguided Development
17 April 2017

Misguided Development

When you’re trying to contain your anger, you may find your heart races and jaw clenches tight. Emotion connects these two seemingly disparate entities. However that isn’t all that links them. Researchers discovered that during development both the heart and jaw depend on the protein PDGFRalpha. Staining the cartilage (blue) of zebrafish with either normal (left) or mutant PDGFRalpha (middle and right) revealed that the mutants had defects in the structure of their jaws. Looking at their hearts revealed structural abnormalities here too, which resulted from the heart cells failing to move into their proper positions during development. This misdirection of cells also underlies the jaw defects. In both cases PDGFRalpha acts as a sensor, picking up chemical signals that tell the cells where to go. Whether navigating the developing heart or jaw, PDGFRalpha is needed to steer things in the right direction.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.