Delineating the roles of Grhl2 in craniofacial development through tissue-specific conditional deletion and epistasis approaches in mouse.

Background: The highly conserved Grainyhead-like (Grhl) family of transcription factors play critical roles in the development of the neural tube and craniofacial skeleton. In particular, deletion of family member Grainyhead-like 2 (Grhl2) leads to mid-gestational embryonic lethality, maxillary clefting, abdominoschisis, and both cranial and caudal neural tube closure defects. These highly pleiotropic and systemic defects suggest that Grhl2 plays numerous critical developmental roles to ensure correct morphogenesis and patterning.

The Role of Sonic Hedgehog in Craniofacial Patterning, Morphogenesis and Cranial Neural Crest Survival.

Craniofacial defects (CFD) are a significant healthcare problem worldwide. Understanding both the morphogenetic movements which underpin normal facial development, as well as the molecular factors which regulate these processes, forms the cornerstone of future diagnostic, and ultimately, preventative therapies. The soluble morphogen (), a vertebrate orthologue of Drosophila , is a key signalling factor in the regulation of craniofacial skeleton development in vertebrates, operating within numerous tissue types in the craniofacial primordia to spatiotemporally regulate the formation of the face and jaws.