Inner ear sensory organs, which mediate balance and hearing in mammals, and the VIIIth cranial ganglion neurons, which innervate them, are derived from the otocyst, an epithelial vesicle formed by invagination of the otic placode. Raft et al. now report that Tbx1 differentially controls sensory organ and neural fate specification in the otocyst (see p. 1801). Tbx1 is a member of the T-box family of DNA-binding transcriptional regulators that control diverse aspects of embryogenesis, including cell-fate specification,in many organisms. The researchers show that while overexpression of Tbx1 suppresses neurogenesis in the mouse otocyst epithelium, Tbx1 loss of function results in ectopic neural precursor generation and sensory organ dysmorphogenesis. Together with expression data, these results indicate that Tbx1 acts as a selector gene to specify regional identity in the otocyst.
Heard the news about Tbx1?
Heard the news about Tbx1?. Development 15 April 2004; 131 (8): e805. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.