Revitalising the rudimentary replacement dentition in the mouse

Most mammals have two sets of teeth (diphyodont) - a deciduous dentition replaced by a permanent dentition; however, the mouse possesses only one tooth generation (monophyodont). In diphyodonts, the replacement tooth forms on the lingual side of the first tooth from the successional dental lamina. This lamina expresses the stem/progenitor marker Sox2 and has activated Wnt/β-catenin signalling at its tip. Although the mouse does not replace its teeth, a transient rudimentary successional dental lamina (RSDL) still forms during development. The mouse RSDL houses Sox2-positive cells, but no Wnt/β-catenin signalling. Here, we show that stabilising Wnt/β-catenin signalling in the RSDL in the mouse leads to proliferation of the RSDL and formation of lingually positioned teeth. Although Sox2 has been shown to repress Wnt activity, overexpression of Wnts leads to a downregulation of Sox2, suggesting a negative-feedback loop in the tooth. In the mouse, the first tooth represses the formation of the replacement, and isolation of the RSDL is sufficient to induce formation of a new tooth germ. Our data highlight key mechanisms that may have influenced the evolution of replacement teeth.This article has an associated 'The people behind the papers' interview.

Complex patterns of tooth replacement revealed in the fruit bat (Eidolon helvum)

How teeth are replaced during normal growth and development has long been an important question for comparative and developmental anatomy. Non-standard model animals have become increasingly popular in this field due to the fact that the canonical model laboratory mammal, the mouse, develops only one generation of teeth (monophyodonty), whereas the majority of mammals possess two generations of teeth (diphyodonty). Here we used the straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum), an Old World megabat, which has two generations of teeth, in order to observe the development and replacement of tooth germs from initiation up to mineralization stages. Our morphological study uses 3D reconstruction of histological sections to uncover differing arrangements of the first and second-generation tooth germs during the process of tooth replacement. We show that both tooth germ generations develop as part of the dental lamina, with the first generation detaching from the lamina, leaving the free edge to give rise to a second generation. This separation was particularly marked at the third premolar locus, where the primary and replacement teeth become positioned side by side, unconnected by a lamina. The position of the replacement tooth, with respect to the primary tooth, varied within the mouth, with replacements forming posterior to or directly lingual to the primary tooth. Development of replacement teeth was arrested at some tooth positions and this appeared to be linked to the timing of tooth initiation and the subsequent rate of development. This study adds an additional species to the growing body of non-model species used in the study of tooth replacement, and offers a new insight into the development of the diphyodont condition.