The developmental basis of fingerprint pattern formation and variation

• Published in: Cell 2023-03, Vol.186 (5), p.940-956.e20
• Main Authors: Glover, James D., Sudderick, Zoe R., Shih, Barbara Bo-Ju, Batho-Samblas, Cameron, Charlton, Laura, Krause, Andrew L., Anderson, Calum, Riddell, Jon, Balic, Adam, Li, Jinxi, Klika, Václav, Woolley, Thomas E., Gaffney, Eamonn A., Corsinotti, Andrea, Anderson, Richard A., Johnston, Luke J., Brown, Sara J., Wang, Sijia, Chen, Yuhang, Crichton, Michael L., Headon, Denis J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dermatoglyph; Development; Digit; Fingerprint; Hair; Humans; Limb; Patterning; Signal Transduction; Signaling; Skin; Skin - metabolism; Turing
• ISSN: 0092-8674; 1097-4172
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.01.015

Fingerprints are complex and individually unique patterns in the skin. Established prenatally, the molecular and cellular mechanisms that guide fingerprint ridge formation and their intricate arrangements are unknown. Here we show that fingerprint ridges are epithelial structures that undergo a truncated hair follicle developmental program and fail to recruit a mesenchymal condensate. Their spatial pattern is established by a Turing reaction-diffusion system, based on signaling between EDAR, WNT, and antagonistic BMP pathways. These signals resolve epithelial growth into bands of focalized proliferation under a precociously differentiated suprabasal layer. Ridge formation occurs as a set of waves spreading from variable initiation sites defined by the local signaling environments and anatomical intricacies of the digit, with the propagation and meeting of these waves determining the type of pattern that forms. Relying on a dynamic patterning system triggered at spatially distinct sites generates the characteristic types and unending variation of human fingerprint patterns. [Display omitted] •Early fingerprint ridges are epithelial buds molecularly analogous to hair placodes•Fingerprint ridges do not recruit mesenchymal cells or express late hair follicle markers•Interacting WNT and BMP signaling defines the spacing interval between ridges•Ridge initiations from anatomically variable sites determine fingerprint pattern type Signaling pathways that determine formation of human fingerprint ridges.