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How is the mineralization of dental tissues regulated?
Mineralization of dental tissues is cooperatively regulated
by extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, secreted
from the cells that develop through reciprocal interactions
between epithelial cells and neural-crest-derived
ectomesenchymal cells [Nanci, 2003; Veis, 2003; Hall,
2005]. Many transcription factors, signal molecules, and
their receptors, involved in these processes, are all coded
by old genes, i.e. their orthologs (genes that split by speciation)
and paralogs (genes that arose by gene duplication)
exist widely in metazoans [Jacob, 1977; Duboule
and Wilkins, 1998]. In contrast, ECM proteins are more
specialized to mineralized tissues. Some of these proteins
are abundant only in a particular mineralized tissue, but
their evolutionary relationship had been largely unknown
until recent studies.