[go] otolith mineralization

[Jennifer Deegan (nee Clark)]

Hi,

Does anybody know if the otoliths of taxa under Tetrapoda continue to 
grow throughout the life of the organism? We need to figure this out in 
order to better define some of the old sensu terms.

otolith mineralization (sensu Tetrapoda)

def: The formation of otoconia by precipitation of specific crystal 
forms of calcium carbonate around an organic core of extracellular 
matrix proteins. Otoconia are small (~10 micron) dense extracellular 
particles present in the otolith end organs of the vertebrate inner ear. 
As in, but not restricted to, the tetrapods (Tetrapoda, 
ncbi_taxonomy_id:32523).

Thanks,

Jen


-- 
Jennifer Deegan (nee Clark)
EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute
Gene Ontology Consortium