Differential retinoic acid sensitivity of oral and pharyngeal teeth in medaka (Oryzias latipes) supports the importance of pouch-cleft contacts in pharyngeal tooth initiation.

RA dependency for pharyngeal tooth formation is not different between zebrafish and medaka. We propose that the differential response to DEAB of oral versus pharyngeal teeth in medaka could be ascribed to the distinct germ layer origin of the epithelia involved in tooth formation in these two regions.