UC San Diego

Genetic diversity has long been implicated as the main contributor to phenotypic variation and why some humans are susceptible to diseases and others are not. Through new advancements in sequencing technology, many of the genetic variants have already been elucidated to be associated with phenotypic variation, ignoring how these changes lead to alterations in the molecular and cellular processes that lead to these complex phenotypic variations. With high morphological variability among mammals, even within a single species, the hair follicle is a very interesting model to study how these cellular and molecular changes can lead to phenotypic variation. Generating FGFR2 null mice, we investigated how this signaling pathway influences the morphology of the hair follicle. Analyzing the effect of the absence of FGFR2 in the hair follicle, we found that it plays a major role in orchestrating the development of the hair shaft, specifically, the medullary lineage of the shaft