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ABSTRACT
During chick embryo development, the liquid crystals appear in more than 20 organs at certain developmental stages, and vanish in early post-natal stage. In this study, we found a complex in embryo, the YS-J/I tunnel system, in charge of transporting the LCs and CCVCs preserved from yolk sac into the embryo. This transportation initiates from yolk sac connecting to central transportation region/reservoir via a main tunnel, spreads radically to various parts of digestive system via sub-tunnels. Our data indicate that the liquid crystals could be the best form of nutrition which is necessary in embryo development and early post-natal development.
List of abbreviations
| LCs | = | Liquid Crystals. |
| CCVCs | = | calcium carbonate vaterite crystals. |
| YS-J/I tunnel system | = | Yolk Sac-Jejunum/Ileum tunnel system. |
Competing interests
Guo Ling, Liyang Wang, Feng Rui, Zhongguang Li, Juan Wang, Kexing Ren,Xin Zhou, George Ghartey- Kwansah, MengMeng Xu, Odell Jones, Guifang Yan, Yuexin Pan, Joseph Bryant, Donald Anthony, Jianjie Ma, Williams Isaacs, Xuehong Xu declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31371256, 31571273), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No.2015CB943100), the National Department of Education Central Universities Research Fund (Grant No. GK20130100), the Foreign Distinguished Scientist Program (Grant No. MS2014SXSF038), US Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (2009MSCRFE008300), Qinba Mountain Developing Center (Grant No. CIC-QBRSD), and the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis fund (Grant No. X2014YB02, X2015YB05).
Authors' contributions
XXH conceived of the study. GL, WLY, FR, ZX and GGK developed protocols and collected all data and analysed the data. XXH, GL, WLY, FR, ZX, GGK, MMX, DA, JM and WI prepared the manuscript and all authors edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Ethics approval and consent to participate
All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.
Availability of data and material
The data set supporting the conclusions of this article are included within the article.