Neural crest induction requires SALL4-mediated BAF recruitment to lineage specific enhancers
Martina Demurtas, Samantha M Barnada, Emma van Domselaar, Zoe H Mitchell, Laura Deelen, Marco Trizzino · 2025
Read Neural crest induction requires SALL4-mediated BAF recruitment to lineage specific enhancers by Martina Demurtas, Samantha M Barnada, Emma van Domselaar, Zoe H Mitchell, Laura Deelen, Marco Trizzino (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12752504.txt.
Description
Martina Demurtas and five colleagues show that a gene linked to face malformations opens the right stretch of DNA at the right moment to launch the neural crest, in a 2025 paper. Neural crest cells, the embryo's great wanderers, form skull, face, and much more. Their launch needs enhancers switched on precisely as the neural plate folds.
Working with human stem cells carrying one broken copy of the gene SALL4, mimicking patient genetics, the team found the BAF chromatin-opening complex never arrives at crest enhancers without it. The enhancers stay shut, and crest induction fails even though earlier neural steps proceed normally. One gene copy variant, SALL4A, does the essential job; its sibling cannot substitute. The findings explain, in molecular steps, how SALL4 mutations produce craniofacial syndromes. An opener protein, they show, is as important as the genes it opens.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Martina Demurtas, Samantha M Barnada, Emma van Domselaar, Zoe H Mitchell, Laura Deelen, Marco Trizzino |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 65 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |