A genetic investigation of the role of sox10 in sensory neuron development

Neural crest is a transient group of multipotent cells that migrates extensively giving rise to a wide variety of derivatives, including pigment cells, neurons and glia. The understanding of sox10 function in neural crest development is essential because sox10 mutations underlie several neurocristopathies. Whereas the role of transcription factor sox10 in glial lineage has been well established, sox10 function in sensory neurons is more debatable. In this study, whole mount in situ hybridizations of developing wild-type and sox10 mutant zebrafish embryos were used to examine all kinds of markers expression in neural crest development. The results reveal that sox10 promotes glial development, and also functions in specification of sensory neurons and autonomic lineage, and the sox10 function deficit leads a secondary consequence for supernumerary neuromasts. In addition, zebrafish sox10 mutant sox10(superscript m618) plays a more severe role in phenotype defect than a relatively novel sox10 mutant sox10(superscript baz1). According to the results of this study, a well-founded assumption can be put forward that Notch-Delta signalling maybe involved in early specification of sensory neurons in sox10 mutant, but this inference requires furthermore examines to be confirmed.