Transpositional scaling and niche transitions restore organ size and shape during zebrafish fin regeneration

Regenerating zebrafish fins have distal progenitor and proximal re-differentiation zones. A Wnt-producing "niche" population maintains distal cells in progenitor states. We sought to define molecular markers of niche cells to study their origins and fates and how they contribute to fin size and shape restoration. Overall design: We used RNA-Seq to compare gene expression between three replicates of microdissected distal vs. proximal regenerating fin tissue, as distinguished by distal shha:gfp expression. Each replicate consisted of pooled tissue from four caudal fins.