Recapitulation of the canine segmentation clock

Embryos of different animals develop at different speeds. For example, human embryos take 2 months to develop, while mouse embryos require only 15 days. The segmentation clock is a pattern of gene activity that controls how body segments form and is a good way to study how fast development happens. This clock has been shown to match the developmental time across six mammal species in what is called the "stem cell zoo." We will add dogs as a medium-sized animal to this "stem cell zoo" to study their segmentation clock using induced pluripotent stem cells. Due to selective breeding, dog breeds have many different traits, but these differences haven`t yet been accounted for in lab models. We will introduce mutations linked to defects in the spine and short tails, likely caused by issues with the segmentation clock. This will help us understand when these problems occur during development and whether they affect the function of the segmentation clock. Finally, we will look for new mutations linked to short tails in dogs by analyzing their genome data and validate potential causative genes using the segmentation clock model.

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