PgmNr Z598: Diverse structures and functions of pharyngeal teeth in teleost (zebrafish, medaka, carp, snowflake moray) live-imaged by synchrotron X-ray cinematography.

Authors:
K. Hatta 1 ; S. Shiomoto 1 ; S. Nomura 1 ; T. Inoue 1 ; K. Kuwabara 1 ; K. Uesugi 2 ; A. Suzu 3 ; K. Fujita 1 ; T. Harada 1 ; T. Ikenaga 1,3


Institutes
1) University of Hyogo, Akou-gun, Hyogo, JP; 2) JASRI, Sayou-gun, Hyogo, JP; 3) Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, JP.


Abstract:

Many teleost have teeth not only on the jaws but also in the pharynx. The latter is called pharyngeal teeth, and their size, shape, and distribution are highly diversified. For example, zebrafish has no oral teeth, but has 10-20 'cone-shaped' pharyngeal teeth only on the 5th pharyngeal bones. Medaka, on the other hand, have oral teeth and 'more than 1000 small, cone-shaped' pharyngeal teeth distributed on the 2nd / 4th dorsal and the 5th ventral pharyngeal bones. Although the molecular, cellular and genetic mechanisms of their development have been studied, how the pharyngeal teeth are used for feeding in these species had been unknown since they are hidden deeply inside. Previously, by X-ray micro-computed tomography and cinematography at SPring-8 (BL20B2), we have succeeded in visualizing not only their 3D structures but also the movement during feeding, for the first time (2007B1795, 2008A1754, 2009B1911). Here we obtained additional movies at higher resolution and analyzed their motions during feeding (2012A1113, 2013A1161, 2014B1377). We also succeeded in live-imaging the movement of pharyngeal teeth in several other teleost species including carp, which is a close relative of zebrafish but has ‘molar-shaped’ teeth, eating snails, and snowflake moray, which has a distinct ‘tongs-like second jaws’, eating a slice of squid or a living zebrafish (2014A1475, 2015B1531). We are hoping that these data provide basic information to elucidate how such diverse 3D morphologies and functions of pharyngeal teeth arised during teleost evolution.