SOX21 explained

Transcription factor SOX-21 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SOX21 gene.^{[1] [2]} It is a member of the Sox gene family of transcription factors.

Function

In the chick embryo, Sox21 promotes neuronal cellular differentiation by counteracting the activity of Sox1, Sox2, and Sox3, which maintain neural cells in an undifferentiated state.^[3]

SOX21 knockout mice display hair loss beginning from postnatal day 11. New hair regrowth was initiated a few days later but was followed by renewed hair loss. Sox21 is also expressed in the hair shaft cuticle in humans and consequently variants of the Sox21 gene could be responsible for some hair loss conditions in humans.^[4]

See also

• SOX genes

Further reading

• Schepers GE, Teasdale RD, Koopman P . Twenty pairs of sox: extent, homology, and nomenclature of the mouse and human sox transcription factor gene families . Developmental Cell . 3 . 2 . 167–70 . Aug 2002 . 12194848 . 10.1016/S1534-5807(02)00223-X . free .
• Hartley JL, Temple GF, Brasch MA . DNA cloning using in vitro site-specific recombination . Genome Research . 10 . 11 . 1788–95 . Nov 2000 . 11076863 . 310948 . 10.1101/gr.143000 .
• Cremazy F, Soullier S, Berta P, Jay P . Further complexity of the human SOX gene family revealed by the combined use of highly degenerate primers and nested PCR . FEBS Letters . 438 . 3 . 311–4 . Nov 1998 . 9827568 . 10.1016/S0014-5793(98)01294-0 . 551497 . free .
• Stevanović M, Lovell-Badge R, Collignon J, Goodfellow PN . SOX3 is an X-linked gene related to SRY . Human Molecular Genetics . 2 . 12 . 2013–8 . Dec 1993 . 8111369 . 10.1093/hmg/2.12.2013 .
• Denny P, Swift S, Brand N, Dabhade N, Barton P, Ashworth A . A conserved family of genes related to the testis determining gene, SRY . Nucleic Acids Research . 20 . 11 . 2887 . Jun 1992 . 1614875 . 336939 . 10.1093/nar/20.11.2887 .

Notes and References

1. Malas S, Duthie S, Deloukas P, Episkopou V . The isolation and high-resolution chromosomal mapping of human SOX14 and SOX21; two members of the SOX gene family related to SOX1, SOX2, and SOX3 . Mammalian Genome . 10 . 9 . 934–7 . Sep 1999 . 10441749 . 10.1007/s003359901118 . 27862567 .
2. Web site: Entrez Gene: SOX21 SRY (sex determining region Y)-box 21.
3. Sandberg M, Källström M, Muhr J . Sox21 promotes the progression of vertebrate neurogenesis . Nature Neuroscience . 8 . 8 . 995–1001 . Aug 2005 . 15995704 . 10.1038/nn1493 . 25515445 .
4. Kiso M, Tanaka S, Saba R, Matsuda S, Shimizu A, Ohyama M, Okano HJ, Shiroishi T, Okano H, Saga Y . The disruption of Sox21-mediated hair shaft cuticle differentiation causes cyclic alopecia in mice . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 106 . 23 . 9292–7 . Jun 2009 . 19470461 . 2695080 . 10.1073/pnas.0808324106 . 2009PNAS..106.9292K . free .