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Defining The Molecular Networks Necessary For Thymus Fate And Organogenesis, Kaitlin A. Reeh
Defining The Molecular Networks Necessary For Thymus Fate And Organogenesis, Kaitlin A. Reeh
Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)
The thymus and parathyroid (PT) glands originate from endodermal progenitors in the bilateral third pharyngeal pouches (3rd pps). By E11.5 during mouse development, cells committed to the thymus lineage express Foxn1 whereas PT-fated cells express Gcm2. While these transcription factors are required for organ-specific differentiation, the exact molecular mechanisms that specify endodermal progenitors to either the thymus or parathyroid lineage are not well defined. Tbx1 is initially expressed throughout the 3rd pp endoderm, as it is required for segmentation of the pharyngeal apparatus, but is downregulated in the thymus-fated domain by E10.5. Despite the widely held notion …