Insights into the evolution of dermal armour: osteoderms in a mammal, the spiny mouse

The goals of this study are to compare NGS-derived transcriptomes (RNA-Seq) derived from skin sampled from the distal and the proximal regions. Using Acomys cahirinus we describe the structure and development of osteoderms in the tail which develop in a proximal to distal and dorsal to ventral sequence over a 6-week period postnatally. We use RNA sequencing to identify which gene regulatory networks are involved in their development which together suggests a deep molecular homology exists in the mammalian dermis which can be activated at any time in evolution. RNA was isolated from the distal and proximal regions of 6 newborn Acomys pups. The RNA was used in the construction of Illumina paired-end RNA-SEQ libraries, which were sequenced on the Illumina NovaSeq6000 platform.