How developing and growing organisms attain their proper shape is a central problem of developmental biology. In this review, we investigate this question with respect to how the body axis and spine form in their characteristic linear head-to-tail fashion in vertebrates. Recent work in the zebrafish has implicated motile cilia and cerebrospinal fluid flow in axial morphogenesis and spinal straightness. We begin by introducing motile cilia, the fluid flows they generate and their roles in zebrafish development and growth. We then describe how cilia control body and spine shape through sensory cells in the spinal canal, a thread-like extracellular structure called the Reissner fiber, and expression of neuropeptide signals. Last, we discuss zebrafish mutants in which spinal straightness breaks down and three-dimensional curves form. These curves resemble the common but little-understood human disease Idiopathic Scoliosis. Zebrafish research is therefore poised to make progress in our understanding of this condition and, more generally, how body and spine shape is acquired and maintained through development and growth.

发育和生长的有机体如何获得适当的形状是发育生物学的核心问题。在这篇综述中，我们研究了这个问题，即身体轴和脊柱是如何在脊椎动物中以它们特有的线性头对尾方式形成的。最近在斑马鱼中的研究表明，运动纤毛和脑脊液流动与轴向形态发生和脊柱直线度有关。我们首先介绍运动纤毛、它们产生的流体流动以及它们在斑马鱼发育和生长中的作用。然后，我们描述纤毛如何通过椎管中的感觉细胞、称为 Reissner 纤维的线状细胞外结构以及神经肽信号的表达来控制身体和脊柱的形状。最后，我们讨论了斑马鱼突变体，其中脊椎直线度被破坏并形成三维曲线。这些曲线类似于常见但鲜为人知的人类疾病特发性脊柱侧凸。因此，斑马鱼研究有望在我们对这种情况的理解方面取得进展，更广泛地说，是如何通过发育和生长获得和维持身体和脊椎的形状。