Negative regulating factors of notch signaling may be a key factor for the teeth root formation

It is still an open question that how the teeth root development is initiated at the molecular level. But what we know is that the teeth root development begins after the crown part is completely formed, and then the terminal cervical loop structure faces two developmental fate options when the crown development is quite advanced: it can remain as a ‘crown’ pattern, and continue enamel production, or it can adopt the ‘root’ fate, and begins teeth root development. Epithelial notch and mesenchymal fgf10 signaling are thought to be the key switches of root or crown development pattern. But, for a rodent's molars and incisors, it is very interesting that after a similar teeth crown developmental process, the late development for the molars and incisors is quite different: the molar germ forms a multi-rooted pattern, while the incisor germ forms a single-rooted analogue and without a really root development process. In a recent study, one of the negative regulating factors for notch signaling, sel1l was found strongly related to the molar root development. So we hypotheses that the negative regulating factors of notch signaling, may be the key signals to determine the tooth root developmental onset, and the quantity or function's abnormal of that factors, may lead to hypoplasia of the teeth root.