Ronen Schweitzer

TL;DR: It is reported that mice homozygous for a disrupted p63 gene have major defects in their limb, craniofacial and epithelial development, and results indicate that p63 is critical for maintaining the progenitor-cell populations that are necessary to sustain epithelialDevelopment and morphogenesis.

TL;DR: Scleraxis, a bHLH transcription factor, is a highly specific marker for all the connective tissues that mediate attachment of muscle to bone in chick and mouse, including the limb tendons, and it is shown that early scleraxis expression marks the progenitor cell populations for these tissues.

TL;DR: The phenotype of Scx-/- mutants emphasizes the diversity of tendon tissues and represents the first molecular insight into the important process of tendon differentiation.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the tendons associated with the axial skeleton derive from a heretofore unappreciated, fourth compartment of the somites, and may reveal a general mechanism for the specification of other somitic subcompartments.

TL;DR: TGFβ signaling is essential for maintenance of TNPs, and it is proposed that it also mediates the recruitment of new tendon cells by differentiating muscles and cartilage to establish the connections between tendon primordia and their respective musculoskeletal counterparts, leading to the formation of an interconnected and functionally integrated musculOSkeletal system.