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. 2008 Apr 11;4(4):e1000050. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000050

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration, which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose.

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(A) Schematic summary of crista formation from the prosensory to mature stage with sensory hair cells and supporting cells. The blue and yellow colors outside the crista represent mesenchymal Msx1- and Gata3- positive cells, respectively. Initially, a number of genes are co-expressed in the prosensory region (B), but these genes segregate into separate domains as sensory (blue) and non-sensory (yellow) fates are specified. Thus far, there is no experimental evidence that the crista prosensory region gives rise to neurons as in the prosensory regions for the maculae [48]. (C) Within the crista epithelium (box), Bmp4 expression is regulated by Notch signaling, possibly mediated by Ser1. Whether Sox2 and Fgf10 regulate Bmp4 expression is not clear. Nevertheless, Bmp4 mediates crista formation by regulating Msx1 and Lmo4 in the sensory and Gata3, Lmo4 and p75Ngfr in the non-sensory (cruciatum) regions. Furthermore, deletion of genes such as Dlx (Dlx5 and Dlx6), Eya1, Hmx (Hmx2 and Hmx3), Tbx, and Six1 affects Bmp4 expression and crista formation. Among these genes, Tbx1 and possibly Dlx are co-expressed with Bmp4 in the crista.