Table 1.

Expression and biological functions of SoxB1 members

Gene	Expressed domains	Functions
Sox1	Embryonic nerve system (CNS), lens, urogenital ridge	Lens development (induction and maintenance of gamma-crystallin gene expression) [81]
		Deletion in KO mice leads to microphthalmia, cataracts, and spontaneous seizures [81, 82]
Sox2	Inner cell mass, primitive ectoderm, trophoblast stem cells, embryonic nerve system (CNS), lens, neurogenic regions in adult brain	Deletion in KO mice is embryonic lethal at implantation stage (involved in gene expression in FGF4 [13–15], Oct4 [50, 51], Nanog [47], UTF1 [21], etc., together with Oct-3/4)
		Induction of gamma- and delta-crystallin gene expression [24, 25]
		Induction of Nestin gene expression in neural stem/progenitor cells [27, 28]
		Involved in its own expression in ES cells and neural stem cells [29–31, 34]
		Required for maintaining neural stem cell state and neurogenic potential [78–80, 86, 90]
Sox3	Epiblast, embryonic CNS, lens, urogenital ridge	Required for early embryogenesis, gonadal function, and hypothalamo-pituitary axis formation [89, 96]
		Candidate gene for human X-linked mental retardation syndromes [97]