The digestive system is crucial for the absorption of nutrients and while its function is conserved among many organisms, its form evolved to best suit an organism’s diet and environment. In cartilaginous fish like the little skate, Leucoraja erinacea, the intestines develop as a short tube with an internal fold that makes the shape of a spiral. The development of the little skate’s embryonic gut tube is directed by various genes including the ligand-receptor action of Shh and Ptch. The aim of my study is to investigate Shh function in patterning the skate digestive tract by visualizing its expression. I also aim to apply cyclopamine and SAG, which are inhibitors and activators of Shh signaling, respectively, to determine the function of signaling during spiral formation. It is expected that Shh and Ptch expression will be prominent within the gut tissue of the embryonic skates in a similar fashion to that observed in the mouse and chick. Furthermore, it is expected that embryos treated with SAG would have increased muscle formation in the digestive tract that may alter the spiral shape. Similarly, embryos inhibited with cyclopamine should exhibit a loss of muscle formation and a “looser” spiral shape. An altered shape of the spiral whether being more revolutions or a relaxed shape will demonstrate Shh vital role in the patterning of the gut.
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