Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Convergent Evolution

Convergent Evolution

Evolution shapes the features of organisms over time, ensuring that they are suited for the environments in which they live. Sometimes, selection pressure leads to the rise of similar but unrelated adaptations in organisms with no recent common ancestors, a process known as convergent evolution.

Parental Care

Parental Care

Many animals exhibit parental care behavior, including feeding, grooming, and protecting young offspring. Parental care is universal in mammals and birds, which often have young that are born relatively helpless. Several species of insects and fish, as well as some amphibians, also care for their young.

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.

Osmoregulation in Fishes

Osmoregulation in Fishes

When cells are placed in a hypotonic (low-salt) fluid, they can swell and burst. Meanwhile, cells in a hypertonic solution—with a higher salt concentration—can shrivel and die. How do fish cells avoid these gruesome fates in hypotonic freshwater or hypertonic seawater environments?

Comparative Excretory Systems

Comparative Excretory Systems

Animals have evolved different strategies for excretion, the removal of waste from the body. Most waste must be dissolved in water to be excreted, so an animal’s excretory strategy directly affects its water balance.

Phylogenetic Trees

Phylogenetic Trees

Phylogenetic trees come in many forms. It matters in which sequence the organisms are arranged from the bottom to the top of the tree, but the branches can rotate at their nodes without altering the information. The lines connecting individual nodes can be straight, angled, or even curved.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Factors Involved in Enamel Knot Establishment and Cap Formation.

Journal of dental research·2025

Same author

Comparative transcriptomics in serial organs uncovers early and pan-organ developmental changes associated with organ-specific morphological adaptation.

Nature communications·2025

Same author

Developmental variability channels mouse molar evolution.

eLife·2020

Same author

Modeling Edar expression reveals the hidden dynamics of tooth signaling center patterning.

PLoS biology·2019

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 6, 2025

Systematic Assessment of Mammalian Skull Specimens for Dental and Temporomandibular Joint Pathology

Systematic Assessment of Mammalian Skull Specimens for Dental and Temporomandibular Joint Pathology

Published on: August 22, 2022

What sharks and mammals share.

Sophie Pantalacci¹

¹Laboratoire de Biologie et Modélisation de la Cellule, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS, UMR 5239, Inserm, U1293, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France.

|July 1, 2022

Summary

Shark and mouse tooth development is controlled by a shared signaling center, even though their teeth have distinct shapes. This finding reveals conserved mechanisms in vertebrate tooth evolution.

Keywords:

dental evolution developmental biology evolutionary biology gene expression morphogenesis scyliorhinus canicula shark tooth development

More Related Videos

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton

Published on: May 7, 2016

Development of a Colloidal Gold-based Immunochromatographic Test Strip for Detection of Cetacean Myoglobin

Development of a Colloidal Gold-based Immunochromatographic Test Strip for Detection of Cetacean Myoglobin

Published on: July 13, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Sep 6, 2025

Systematic Assessment of Mammalian Skull Specimens for Dental and Temporomandibular Joint Pathology

Systematic Assessment of Mammalian Skull Specimens for Dental and Temporomandibular Joint Pathology

Published on: August 22, 2022

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton

Published on: May 7, 2016

Development of a Colloidal Gold-based Immunochromatographic Test Strip for Detection of Cetacean Myoglobin

Development of a Colloidal Gold-based Immunochromatographic Test Strip for Detection of Cetacean Myoglobin

Published on: July 13, 2016

Area of Science:

Developmental Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Comparative Anatomy

Background:

Tooth shape is a critical feature influencing diet and survival across species.
Understanding the genetic and molecular mechanisms regulating tooth morphology is key to evolutionary studies.
Sharks and mice, representing distinct vertebrate lineages, exhibit significantly different tooth geometries.

Discussion:

The study identifies a conserved signaling center responsible for tooth patterning in both sharks and mice.
This conserved center regulates downstream gene expression, leading to species-specific tooth shapes.
The findings suggest that evolutionary changes in tooth geometry may arise from modifications in the activity or downstream targets of this shared signaling pathway.

Key Insights:

A common signaling center governs tooth shape regulation in phylogenetically distant species like sharks and mice.
Despite divergent evolutionary paths, fundamental developmental pathways for tooth formation are conserved.
This highlights the principle of evolutionary modularity, where conserved components are redeployed to generate diversity.

Outlook:

Further research can explore the specific molecular components of this signaling center and their differential regulation.
Investigating other vertebrate species will clarify the evolutionary history and conservation of this tooth development mechanism.
This knowledge could inform future applications in regenerative dentistry and the study of dental anomalies.