An iterative genetic and dynamical modelling approach identifies novel features of the gene regulatory network underlying melanocyte development.

ABSTRACT: The mechanisms generating stably differentiated cell-types from multipotent precursors are key to understanding normal development and have implications for treatment of cancer and the therapeutic use of stem cells. Pigment cells are a major derivative of neural crest stem cells and a key model cell-type for our understanding of the genetics of cell differentiation. Several factors driving melanocyte fate specification have been identified, including the transcription factor and master regulator of melanocyte development, Mitf, and Wnt signalling and the multipotency and fate specification factor, Sox10, which drive mitf expression. While these factors together drive multipotent neural crest cells to become specified melanoblasts, the mechanisms stabilising melanocyte differentiation remai

SUBMITTER: Greenhill ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3164703 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature