Institut de Biologie de l’ENS (IBENS), Inserm, CNRS, École normale supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France; School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
Zoubida Chettouh
Institut de Biologie de l’ENS (IBENS), Inserm, CNRS, École normale supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France
G Giacomo Consalez
San Raffaele Scientific Institute and Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
It has been known for more than a century that, in adult vertebrates, the maintenance of taste buds depends on their afferent nerves. However, the initial formation of taste buds is proposed to be nerve-independent in amphibians, and evidence to the contrary in mammals has been endlessly debated, mostly due to indirect and incomplete means to impede innervation during the protracted perinatal period of taste bud differentiation. Here, by genetically ablating, in mice, all somatic (i.e. touch) or visceral (i.e. taste) neurons for the oral cavity, we show that the latter but not the former are absolutely required for the proper formation of their target organs, the taste buds.
