• embryogenesis
• thiroid development
• zebrafish

We studied morphological and signaling aspects of the early thyroid development using transgenic zebrafish models.
Our data obtained studying different morphological aspects of the budding and relocation process, strongly support that the movement of the thyroid primordium during its development is not an active migration but rather a passive process. We therefore propose the use of the term “relocation” instead of the so far used term “migration” in order to avoid misunderstanding.
Moreover, our data allowed us to describe a previously unrecognized role of BMP signaling in thyroid development as well as to confirm a hypothesized role of FGF signaling.
Furthermore, zebrafish models have proved to be a powerful tool for studying the developmental processes in vertebrates and their disorders, and therefore they are an effective experimental approach to understand the mechanisms involved in human diseases and particularly, in our case, in thyroid dysgenesis.