Fig. 4: Disruption of stem cell maintenance and the Wnt signaling pathway in Mast4 KO mice.

a–d RNA-Seq analyses of apical buds and ameloblasts from both WT and Mast4 KO incisors. a, c Heatmaps showing that canonical Wnt-related genes showed downregulation in Mast4 KO apical buds and ameloblasts. The expression of genes related to stem cell maintenance was also downregulated in Mast4 KO incisors. b, d GO analysis of both apical buds and ameloblasts revealed that the canonical Wnt signaling pathway was downregulated in Mast4 KO incisors. e Subcellular fractionation of control mHat9d cells and mHat9d cells with lentivirus-mediated Mast4 KO was performed. Notably, β-catenin expression in both the cytoplasm and nucleus was decreased in Mast4 KO cells (mean ± SD, n = 3). f Real-time PCR analysis of the expression of Mast4, Wnt-3a, β-catenin, and Lrp5 in mHat9d cells (mean ± SD, n = 3). The expression of Wnt-related genes was reduced after Mast4 KO in mHat9d cells. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ****p < 0.0001.