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| Poster #210 Expression of Familial Dysautonomia-causing gene Elp1 in the peripheral taste system is important for the development of taste papillae and buds |
| Md Mamunur Rashid1, Wenxin Yu1, Ruchi Sha1, Zhonghou Wang1, Frances Lefcort2, Hong-Xiang Liu1 1Regenerative Bioscience Center,Department of Animal and Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens , GA, United States 2Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States |
Elongator complex protein 1 (Elp1) is important for neurogenesis and neuronal survival. The essential roles of Elp1 in the development and maintenance of taste organs is implicated by the loss of taste papillae and buds in patients with Familial Dysautonomia (FD) caused by Elp1 mutation. To understand the potential stage-specific roles of Elp1 and tissue involvement in taste papilla and bud formation and maintenance, we examined Elp1 expression patterns in the tongue and cranial ganglia at various developmental stages using Elp1-LacZ transgenic mice and analyzed the phenotypes in Elp1 conditional knockout (Elp1 cKO) driven by Sox10-Cre that labels neural crest lineages. Our findings revealed a dynamic Elp1 expression in tissue compartments associated with taste papilla and bud development. In the tongue epithelium Elp1 was broadly expressed at E12.5 and restricted to the basal epithelial cells at E14.5, P1 and adult. Elp1 was also observed in taste buds in adult mice. In the tongue mesenchyme, Elp1 was widely expressed at the examined stages mentioned above. In geniculate and trigeminal ganglia, Elp1 was expressed in nearly all neurons at embryonic and postnatal stages. Elp1 cKO mice depicted impaired taste organogenesis, including fewer papillae on the slightly smaller tongues at E13.5, fewer and less profound fungiform papillae and smaller circumvallate papilla at E19, fewer and smaller circumvallate taste buds in a rarely survived postnatal mouse at day 13. Our data reveals Elp1 expression in multiple associated tissue compartments of the developing tongue, and important role of Elp1 in the neural crest lineage for taste organogenesis. Studies using tissue- and stage-specific Elp1 cKO will be needed to define the roles of Elp1 in the development and maintenance of taste papillae and buds. |