Taste papilla cell differentiation requires the regulation of secretory protein production by ALK3-BMP signaling in the tongue mesenchyme

Taste papillae are specialized organs, each of which comprises an epithelial wall hosting taste buds and a core of mesenchymal tissue. In the present study, we report that during early taste papilla development in mouse embryos, bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling mediated by type 1 receptor ALK3 in the tongue mesenchyme is required for the epithelial Wnt/ß-catenin activity and taste papilla differentiation. Overall design: Separated mesenchymal and epithelial tissues from E12.0 Cre- littermate control and mesenchyme specific Wnt1-Cre mediated Alk3 conditional knock out (cKO) tongues were immersed in Trizol solution (15596018, Life Technologies) for RNA extraction using the RNeasy Plus kit (74136, Qiagen). For each experimental condition, a total of nine mesenchymal and epithelial tissues (pooled three tissues×three replicates) were used. RNA concentrations were measured using Nanodrop 8000 spectrophotometer (ThermoFisher Scientific). RNA sequencing was performed in Georgia Genomics and Bioinformatics Center at the University of Georgia using the NextSeq 500 system (Illumina)