Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 14, 2025

Blastomere Explants to Test for Cell Fate Commitment During Embryonic Development
Published on: January 26, 2013
Sox21 Regulates Anapc10 Expression and Determines the Fate of Ectodermal Organ
Kan Saito1, Frederic Michon2, Aya Yamada1
1Division of Pediatric Dentistry, Department of Oral Health and Development Sciences, Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry, Sendai 980-8575, Japan.
Abstract:
The transcription factor Sox21 is expressed in the epithelium of developing teeth. The present study aimed to determine the role of Sox21 in tooth development. We found that disruption of Sox21 caused severe enamel hypoplasia, regional osteoporosis, and ectopic hair formation in the gingiva in Sox21 knockout incisors. Differentiation markers were lost in ameloblasts, which formed hair follicles expressing hair keratins. Molecular analysis and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing indicated that Sox21 regulated Anapc10, which recognizes substrates for ubiquitination-mediated degradation, and determined dental-epithelial versus hair follicle cell fate. Disruption of either Sox21 or Anapc10 induced Smad3 expression, accelerated TGF-β1-induced promotion of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and resulted in E-cadherin degradation via Skp2. We conclude that Sox21 disruption in the dental epithelium leads to the formation of a unique microenvironment promoting hair formation and that Sox21 controls dental epithelial differentiation and enamel formation by inhibiting EMT via Anapc10.
More Related Videos
07:34The Power of Simplicity: Sea Urchin Embryos as in Vivo Developmental Models for Studying Complex Cell-to-cell Signaling Network Interactions
Published on: February 16, 2017
11:13Stem cell-like Xenopus Embryonic Explants to Study Early Neural Developmental Features In Vitro and In Vivo
Published on: February 2, 2016
Related Concept Videos
Pleiotropy
Role Of Notch Signalling In Intestinal Stem Cell Renewal
Direct cell-to-cell contact is needed for the activation of Notch signaling. The signal is initiated when a notch ligand binds to a receptor on an adjacent cell, also...
Master Transcription Regulators
Notch Signaling Pathway
The Notch gene came into the limelight in 1914 after the discovery that its mutation in Drosophila melanogaster leads to a serrated (or "notched") wing margin phenotype. It was not...
Inheritance of Chromatin Structures
Exon Recombination
Exon shuffling follows “splice frame rules.” Each exon...