Laying Down Roots

The bigger the tree above ground, the more extensive its roots below ground. Swap trees for teeth and it’s the same story. Larger teeth, namely molars, need more tooth roots to keep them securely anchored in your jaw and to provide them with adequate nutrients through blood vessels that run through the roots. Researchers investigate how the correct number of roots develop, focusing on the protein Ezh2, which is known to help bones of the face develop. In mice lacking Ezh2 in a specific tissue type called mesenchyme, which contributes to tooth development, the molars developed fewer roots as captured using micro-CT (pictured, bottom) when compared to normal mouse molars (top). Piecing together the puzzle of tooth root development contributes towards continued efforts to regenerate human teeth to treat tooth loss.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image by Junjun Jing and colleagues
• Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, July 2019