黑素细胞进化产生黑色素，为我们的头发、眼睛和皮肤提供颜色。黑色素细胞谱系还会引起黑色素瘤，这是最致命的皮肤癌。黑素细胞谱系在发育过程中与神经嵴细胞分化，大多数黑素细胞驻留在皮肤和头发中，在那里它们由黑素细胞干细胞补充。由于黑色素细胞特化、迁移、增殖和分化所需的分子机制在黑色素瘤发生和进展过程中是共同选择的，因此研究黑色素细胞发育与人类疾病直接相关。在这里，通过细胞组学和基因组技术的进步，我们回顾了黑素细胞发育和分化的最新发现，以及这些发育途径如何在疾病中失调。© 2024。由 The Company of Biologies Ltd 出版。

Melanocytes evolved to produce the melanin that gives colour to our hair, eyes and skin. The melanocyte lineage also gives rise to melanoma, the most lethal form of skin cancer. The melanocyte lineage differentiates from neural crest cells during development, and most melanocytes reside in the skin and hair, where they are replenished by melanocyte stem cells. Because the molecular mechanisms necessary for melanocyte specification, migration, proliferation and differentiation are co-opted during melanoma initiation and progression, studying melanocyte development is directly relevant to human disease. Here, through the lens of advances in cellular omic and genomic technologies, we review the latest findings in melanocyte development and differentiation, and how these developmental pathways become dysregulated in disease.© 2024. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.