Richard L. Maas

Msx2-deficient mice exhibit progressive hair loss, starting at P14 and followed by successive cycles of wavelike regrowth and loss. During the hair cycle, Msx2 deficiency shortens anagen phase, but prolongs catagen and telogen. Msx2-deficient hair shafts are structurally abnormal. Molecular analyses suggest a Bmp4/Bmp2/Msx2/Foxn1 acidic hair keratin pathway is involved. These structurally abnormal hairs are easily dislodged in catagen implying a precocious exogen. Deficiency in Msx2 helps to reveal the distinctive skin domains on the same mouse. Each domain cycles asynchronously — although hairs within each skin domain cycle in synchronized waves. Thus, the combinatorial defects in hair cycling and differentiation, together with concealed skin domains, account for the cyclic alopecia phenotype.

Summary: Pax6 plays important roles in the control of ocular and pancreatic development. We identified a 450 bp Pax6 enhancer that contains two interacting sequences: a 274 bp fragment sufficient for expression in retinal progenitors and an adjacent 156 bp fragment required for expression in pancreatic progenitors. Since this enhancer is only transiently expressed during embryogenesis, a Cre‐loxP fate‐mapping strategy was used to investigate the developmental potential of these progenitors. Surprisingly, the labeled retinal precursors predominantly gave rise to horizontal cells, indicating a cell lineage role in horizontal cell differentiation. In the pancreas, all enhancer‐specific cells were restricted to endocrine and ductal cell lineages. This result lends support to a model whereby Pax6‐expressing progenitors contribute to the adult pancreatic islets and ducts. The progenitor cell‐specificity of this enhancer will be useful in studies that require either cell‐specific expression or conditional gene inactivation in these cell populations. genesis 35:22–30, 2003.

The development of many organs depends on sequential epithelial-mesenchymal interactions, and the developing tooth germ provides a powerful model for elucidating the nature of these inductive tissue interactions. In Msx1-deficient mice, tooth development arrests at the bud stage when Msx1 is required for the expression of Bmp4 and Fgf3 in the dental mesenchyme (Bei, M. and Maas, R. (1998) Development 125, 4325-4333). To define the tissue requirements for Msx1 function, we performed tissue recombinations between wild-type and Msx1 mutant dental epithelium and mesenchyme. We show that through the E14.5 cap stage of tooth development, Msx1 is required in the dental mesenchyme for tooth formation. After the cap stage, however, tooth development becomes Msx1 independent, although our experiments identify a further late function of Msx1 in odontoblast and dental pulp survival. These results suggest that prior to the cap stage, the dental epithelium receives an Msx1-dependent signal from the dental mesenchyme that is necessary for tooth formation.To further test this hypothesis, Msx1 mutant tooth germs were first cultured with either BMP4 or with various FGFs for two days in vitro and then grown under the kidney capsule of syngeneic mice to permit completion of organogenesis and terminal differentiation. Previously, using an in vitro culture system, we showed that BMP4 stimulated the growth of Msx1 mutant dental epithelium (Chen, Y., Bei, M. Woo, I., Satokata, I. and Maas, R. (1996). Development 122, 3035-3044). Using the more powerful kidney capsule grafting procedure, we now show that when added to explanted Msx1-deficient tooth germs prior to grafting, BMP4 rescues Msx1 mutant tooth germs all the way to definitive stages of enamel and dentin formation. Collectively, these results establish a transient functional requirement for Msx1 in the dental mesenchyme that is almost fully supplied by BMP4 alone, and not by FGFs. In addition, they formally prove the postulated downstream relationship of BMP4 with respect to Msx1, establish the non-cell-autonomous nature of Msx1 during odontogenesis, and disclose an additional late survival function for Msx1 in odontoblasts and dental pulp.

Teeth have been missing from birds ( Aves ) for at least 60 million years. However, in the chick oral cavity a rudiment forms that resembles the lamina stage of the mammalian molar tooth germ. We have addressed the molecular basis for this secondary loss of tooth formation in Aves by analyzing in chick embryos the status of molecular pathways known to regulate mouse tooth development. Similar to the mouse dental lamina, expression of Fgf8, Pitx2, Barx1 , and Pax9 defines a potential chick odontogenic region. However, the expression of three molecules involved in tooth initiation, Bmp4 , Msx1 , and Msx2 , are absent from the presumptive chick dental lamina. In chick mandibles, exogenous bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) induces Msx expression and together with fibroblast growth factor promotes the development of Sonic hedgehog expressing epithelial structures. Distinct epithelial appendages also were induced when chick mandibular epithelium was recombined with a tissue source of BMPs and fibroblast growth factors, chick skin mesenchyme. These results show that, although latent, the early signaling pathways involved in odontogenesis remain inducible in Aves and suggest that loss of odontogenic Bmp4 expression may be responsible for the early arrest of tooth development in living birds.

During early tooth development, multiple signaling molecules are expressed in the dental lamina epithelium and induce the dental mesenchyme. One signal, BMP4, has been shown to induce morphologic changes in dental mesenchyme and mesenchymal gene expression via Msx1, but BMP4 cannot substitute for all the inductive functions of the dental epithelium. To investigate the role of FGFs during early tooth development, we examined the expression of epithelial and mesenchymal Fgfs in wild-type and Msx1 mutant tooth germs and tested the ability of FGFs to induce Fgf3 and Bmp4 expression in wild-type and Msx1 mutant dental mesenchymal explants. Fgf8 expression is preserved in Msx1 mutant epithelium while that of Fgf3 is not detected in Msx1 mutant dental mesenchyme. Moreover, dental epithelium as well as beads soaked in FGF1, FGF2 or FGF8 induce Fgf3 expression in dental mesenchyme in an Msx1-dependent manner. These results indicate that, like BMP4, FGF8 constitutes an epithelial inductive signal capable of inducing the expression of downstream signaling molecules in dental mesenchyme via Msx1. However, the BMP4 and FGF8 signaling pathways are distinct. BMP4 cannot induce Fgf3 nor can FGFs induce Bmp4 expression in dental mesenchyme, even though both signaling molecules can induce Msx1 and Msx1 is necessary for Fgf3 and Bmp4 expression in dental mesenchyme. In addition, we have investigated the effects of FGFs and BMP4 on the distal-less homeobox genes Dlx1 and Dlx2 and we have clarified the relationship between Msx and Dlx gene function in the developing tooth. Dlx1,Dlx2 double mutants exhibit a lamina stage arrest in maxillary molar tooth development (Thomas B. L., Tucker A. S., Qiu M., Ferguson C. A., Hardcastle Z., Rubenstein J. L. R. and Sharpe P. T. (1997) Development 124, 4811-4818). Although the maintenance of molar mesenchymal Dlx2 expression at the bud stage is Msx1-dependent, both the maintenance of Dlx1 expression and the initial activation of mesenchymal Dlx1 and Dlx2 expression during the lamina stage are not. Moreover, in contrast to the tooth bud stage arrest observed in Msx1 mutants, Msx1,Msx2 double mutants exhibit an earlier phenotype closely resembling the lamina stage arrest observed in Dlx1,Dlx2 double mutants. These results are consistent with functional redundancy between Msx1 and Msx2 in dental mesenchyme and support a model whereby Msx and Dlx genes function in parallel within the dental mesenchyme during tooth initiation. Indeed, as predicted by such a model, BMP4 and FGF8, epithelial signals that induce differential Msx1 and Msx2 expression in dental mesenchyme, also differentially induce Dlx1 and Dlx2 expression, and do so in an Msx1-independent manner. These results integrate Dlx1, Dlx2 and Fgf3 and Fgf8 into the odontogenic regulatory hierarchy along with Msx1, Msx2 and Bmp4, and provide a basis for interpreting tooth induction in terms of transcription factors which, individually, are necessary but not sufficient for the expression of downstream signals and therefore must act in specific combinations.

Vertebrate limb tendons are derived from connective cells of the lateral plate mesoderm. Some of the developmental steps leading to the formation of vertebrate limb tendons have been previously identified; however, the molecular mechanisms responsible for tendinous patterning and maintenance during embryogenesis are largely unknown. The eyes absent ( eya ) gene of Drosophila encodes a novel nuclear protein of unknown molecular function. Here we show that Eya1 and Eya2 , two mouse homologues of Drosophila eya , are expressed initially during limb development in connective tissue precursor cells. Later in limb development, Eya1 and Eya2 expression is associated with cell condensations that form different sets of limb tendons. Eya1 expression is largely restricted to flexor tendons, while Eya2 is expressed in the extensor tendons and ligaments of the phalangeal elements of the limb. These data suggest that Eya genes participate in the patterning of the distal tendons of the limb. To investigate the molecular functions of the Eya gene products, we have analyzed whether the highly divergent PST (proline-serine-threonine)-rich N-terminal regions of Eya1–3 function as transactivation domains. Our results demonstrate that Eya gene products can act as transcriptional activators, and they support a role for this molecular function in connective tissue patterning.