Shaping up and shipping out: the role of cilia in growth and patterning.

their associated skeletal elements are derived from cranial neural crest: thus, this genetic approach inactivated Kif3a cells that give rise to the facial skeleton. Despite the dramatic truncation in cilia, cranial neural crest cells still migrated normally into the facial prominences. In addition, cranial neural crest cells that lacked cilia still differentiated into osteoblasts and deposited a mineralized matrix on a timescale equivalent to their wild-type and heterozygous littermates. Loss of Kif3a resulted in a dramatic alteration in the pattern and subsequent growth of the facial skeleton. We will discuss the molecular and cellular basis for this defect in skeletal patterning, and present a novel mechanism whereby disruptions in ciliary function is responsible for a class of craniofacial dysmorphologies. J Musculoskelet Neuronal Interact 2007; 7(4):300