The initiation and development of the hair follicle population in tabby mice

Abstract

Hair follicle initiation and development was examined in tabby mutants and compared with a previous study of this sequence in normal mice. Initiation commenced at about the 17th embryonic day and continued for 1 and possibly 2 days after birth. Although central primary follicle initiation was of shorter than normal duration, it was more rapid, with the result that the central primaries achieved a greater maximum density, and their total numbers were greater in tabby than in normal mice.In general structural terms, follicle group development proceeded normally except that no secondary follicles appeared, and for this reason, the mature grouping pattern of follicles was comparatively simple. Central primary follicles, the first to be initiated, were evenly spaced in the skin but the later association of lateral primaries with them was unusually close, and the resulting groups of primary follicles were relatively more compact in the mutants than they were in normal mice.No simple explanation in terms of the altered timing of follicle initiation or the reduced complexity of the follicle group could be given for the abnormalities of the tabby coat.Selection for high and low numbers of secondary vibrissae in tabby mice produced some correlated changes in the maincoat follicle population, but there was no apparent alteration to the time of onset of initiation. Evidently selection did not simply modify the effects of theTagene.