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¹ Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Doctoral Program in Life System Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan
² Division of Molecular Pathology, Ehime University Postgraduate School of Medicine, Toh-on, Ehime 791-0295, Japan
³ Department of Medical Biochemistry, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-cho, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8587, Japan
⁴ University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 0616, USA

The importance of the large Maf transcription factor family has been investigated in lens development in the chick, Xenopus and mammals. Previously we reported that c-maf-deficient mice exhibit severe defects in lens fibre cells. Here, we report the roles of other large Mafs, MafA/L-Maf and MafB, during mouse lens development. MafA/L-Maf and MafB were expressed in lens epithelial cells and fibre cells at E12.5 but had largely disappeared from the lens at E18.5. The lens of mafA-, mafB-deficient and mafA::mafB double-deficient mice developed normally. In c-maf-deficient mice, the pattern of expression of MafA and MafB differed from their expression in wild-type mice. Moreover, the expression of crystallin genes was unchanged in mafA-, mafB- and mafA::mafB double-deficient lens. These results indicate that c-Maf alone is essential for lens development, and that MafA/L-Maf and MafB are dispensable in mice.

^* satoruta{at}md.tsukuba.ac.jp