Iridophores and their interactions with other chromatophores are required for stripe formation in zebrafish
Open accessAbstract
Colour patterns of adult fish are produced by several types of pigment cells that distribute in the dermis during juvenile development. The zebrafish, Danio rerio, displays a striking pattern of dark stripes of melanophores interspersed by light stripes of xanthophores. Mutants lacking either cell type do not form proper stripes, indicating that interactions between these two chromatophore types are required for stripe formation. A third cell type, silvery iridophores, participates to render a shiny appearance to the pattern, but its role in stripe formation has been unclear. Mutations in rose (rse) or shady (shd) cause a lack or strong reduction of iridophores in adult fish; in addition, the melanophore number is drastically reduced and stripes are broken up into spots. We show that rse and shd are autonomously required in iridophores, as mutant melanophores form normal sized stripes when confronted with wild-type iridophores in chimeric animals. We describe stripe formation in mutants missing one or two of the three chromatophore types. None of the chromatophore types alone is able to create a pattern but residual stripe formation occurs with two cell types. Our analysis shows that iridophores promote and sustain melanophores. Furthermore, iridophores attract xanthophores, whereas xanthophores repel melanophores. We present a model for the interactions between the three chromatophore types underlying stripe formation. Stripe formation is initiated by iridophores appearing at the horizontal myoseptum, which serves as a morphological landmark for stripe orientation, but is subsequently a self-organising process.
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Stromal cells of the hypodermis and iridophores regulate melanophore and xanthophore numbers during adult pigment pattern formation.
“stromal cells of the hypodermis (Lang et al., 2009) and also iridophores (Frohnhöfer et al., 2013; Patterson and Parichy, 2013) regulate melanophore and xanthophore numbers during adult pigment pattern formation”
From Thyroid hormone regulates distinct paths to maturation in pigment cell lineages (2019) · cites this paper as Frohnhöfer et al., 2013
The Results section, “Development of the adult pattern in iridophore mutants” (page unavailable), reports markedly fewer melanophores in mutants with reduced or absent iridophores. It describes delayed xanthophore appearance and altered distribution, but does not establish that iridophores regulate xanthophore numbers. The stromal-cell part of the sentence is attributed to a different citation and is not judged here. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredGenetically or experimentally induced deficiencies in iridophores cause pattern defects, including alterations in primary stripe positioning and boundary formation, and also lead to reductions or losses of secondary interstripes and stripes.
“The iridophore’s importance in skin patterning has been demonstrated in experiments showing that genetically or experimentally induced deficiencies in iridophores cause pattern defects, including alterations in primary stripe positioning and boundary formation, and also lead to reductions or losses of secondary interstripes and stripes13–17.”
From In situ differentiation of iridophore crystallotypes underlies zebrafish stripe patterning (2020) · cites this paper as [14]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe authors' data, together with those of others, suggest that some of these signals depend on melanophores, promoting differentiation of iridoblasts toward a state having ordered reflecting crystal platelets that are physiologically responsive (blue ⟷ yellow) in stripes, and away from an alternative state of disordered-crystal platelets lacking physiological responsiveness (silvery-yellow) in the
“Our data, together with those of others, suggest that some of these signals depend on melanophores14,15,25,47, promoting differentiation of iridoblasts toward a state having ordered reflecting crystal platelets that are physiologically responsive (blue ⟷ yellow) in stripes, and away from an alternative state of disordered-crystal platelets lacking physiological responsiveness (silvery-yellow) in”
From In situ differentiation of iridophore crystallotypes underlies zebrafish stripe patterning (2020) · cites this paper as [14]
The Results (‘Mutants lacking xanthophores and melanophores display abnormal iridophore distribution’; page unavailable) show altered iridophore distribution when melanophores are absent, supporting a role for melanophores in their patterning. The paper also describes blue iridophores in stripes, but it does not establish that melanophore-dependent signals direct iridoblast differentiation toward ordered, physiologically responsive crystal platelets rather than disordered, unresponsive ones. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMutants for mitfa, which lack melanophores, have the dense morphology iridophores over a broader area than wild-type fish.
“Prior work has hinted at this possibility as mutants for melanophore-inducing transcription factor (mitfa), which lack melanophores, have the dense morphology iridophores (characteristic of interstripe zones) over a broader area than wild-type fish14,27.”
From In situ differentiation of iridophore crystallotypes underlies zebrafish stripe patterning (2020) · cites this paper as [14]
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Advancing biology through a deeper understanding of zebrafish ecology and evolution.
Parichy, D. M. (2015) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.05635 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Thyroid hormone regulates distinct paths to maturation in pigment cell lineages
Saunders, L. M., Mishra, A. K., Aman, A. J., Lewis, V. M., Toomey, M. B., Packer, J. S., Qiu, X., McFaline-Figueroa, J. L., Corbo, J. C., Trapnell, C., et al. (2019) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.45181 · Cited by 170 · see citing works
In situ differentiation of iridophore crystallotypes underlies zebrafish stripe patterning
Gur, D., Bain, E. J., Johnson, K. R., Aman, A. J., Pasolli, H. A., Flynn, J. D., Allen, M. C., Deheyn, D. D., Lee, J. C., Lippincott-Schwartz, J., et al. (2020) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20088-1 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
- Authors
- Frohnhöfer, H. G., Krauss, J., Maischein, H.-M., & Nüsslein-Volhard, C.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology (DE)
- Max-Planck-Institut für Entwicklungsbiologie, Spemannstr 35, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
- Corresponding author
- Frohnhöfer, Hans Georg
- Venue
- Development
- Publisher
- The Company of Biologists
- Published
- 2013-07-15
- Volume
- 140
- Issue
- 14
- Pages
- 2997-3007
- ISSN
- 0950-1991 (ISSN-L)
- 1477-9129
- PMC
- PMC3912879
- OpenAlex
- W2117822539
- Cited by
- 216
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 4
- FWCI
- 7.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Development (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › melanin and skin pigmentation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Zebrafish Biomedical Research Applications
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation
- Keywords
- iridophores, melanophores, xanthophores, stripe formation, zebrafish, chimeric animals, self-organization
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Chromatophores, Melanophores, Models, Biological, Pigmentation, Zebrafish, Body Patterning
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