Sox2 is required for development of taste bud sensory cells

  1. Tadashi Okubo1,3,5,
  2. Larysa H. Pevny2, and
  3. Brigid L.M. Hogan1,4
  1. 1Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA;
  2. 2Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA

Abstract

Sox2 is expressed in basal epithelial cells of the tongue, with high levels in taste bud placodes, fungiform papillae, and mature taste cells, and low levels in filiform papillae. High Sox2 expression appears to lie downstream from canonical Wnt signaling. In hypomorphic Sox2EGFP/LP embryos, placodes form but no mature taste buds develop. In contrast, transgenic overexpression of Sox2 in the basal cells inhibits differentiation of filiform keratinocytes. Together, our loss-of-function and gain-of-function studies suggest that Sox2 functions in a dose-dependent manner to regulate the differentiation of endodermal progenitor cells of the tongue into taste bud sensory cells versus keratinocytes.

Keywords

Footnotes

  • 3 Present address: Center for Integrative Bioscience, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi 444-8787, Japan.

  • Corresponding authors.

  • 4 E-MAIL b.hogan{at}cellbio.duke.edu; FAX (919) 684-8592.

  • 5 E-MAIL t.okubo{at}nibb.ac.jp; FAX 81-564-59-5240.

  • Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1457106.

  • Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org

    • Received June 8, 2006.
    • Accepted August 18, 2006.
| Table of Contents

Life Science Alliance