β-Catenin is required for radial cell patterning and identity in the developing mouse cochlea

Abstract

The cochlea is essential for sound detection. It consists of highly differentiated hair cells and nonsensory supporting cells radially patterned into lateral and medial compartments. However, mechanisms regulating radial patterning and specification of hair cell and supporting cell subtypes, each of which serves unique functions, are unclear. Here we show that β-catenin is required for radial patterning and differentiation of sensory and nonsensory cell subtypes in the developing cochlea. β-Catenin-deleted cochleae displayed disrupted compartment borders containing ectopic hair cell and supporting cell subtypes, whereas inhibiting transcriptional and preserving cell adhesion-mediated activities of β-catenin maintained radial patterning and cell identity. This study thus characterizes a role for β-catenin-mediated cell adhesion in the developing cochlea.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Sep 30, 2019
Source ID
10.1073/pnas.1910223116

Entities

People

  • Alan G Cheng
  • David M. Ornitz
  • Jessica W Shen
  • Lee A. Quiruz
  • Lina Jansson
  • Michael Ebeid
  • Sung-Ho Huh
  • Tara E. Mokhtari

Organizations

  • Formas
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences
  • National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
  • Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services
  • Stanford University
  • United States Department of Defense
  • University of Nebraska–Lincoln
  • Washington University in St. Louis

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

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