SOX21

SRY (sex determining region Y)-box 21
Identifiers
Symbols	SOX21 ; SOX25
External IDs	OMIM: 604974 MGI: 2654070 HomoloGene: 5143 GeneCards: SOX21 Gene
Gene ontology Molecular function • RNA polymerase II transcription factor activity, sequence-specific DNA binding • DNA binding • transcription factor activity, sequence-specific DNA binding Cellular component • cellular_component • nucleus Biological process • hair follicle development • transcription, DNA-templated • regulation of transcription, DNA-templated • regulation of transcription from RNA polymerase II promoter • stem cell differentiation Sources: Amigo / QuickGO
RNA expression pattern
More reference expression data
Orthologs
Species	Human	Mouse
Entrez	11166	223227
Ensembl	ENSG00000125285	ENSMUSG00000061517
UniProt	Q9Y651	Q811W0
RefSeq (mRNA)	NM_007084	NM_177753
RefSeq (protein)	NP_009015	NP_808421
Location (UCSC)	Chr 13: 94.71 – 94.71 Mb	Chr 14: 118.23 – 118.24 Mb
PubMed search	[1]	[2]

Transcription factor SOX-21 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SOX21 gene. It is a member of the Sox gene family of transcription factors.

Function

In the chick embryo, Sox21 promotes neuronal cellular differentiation by counteracting the activity of Sox1, Sox2, and Sox3, which maintain neural cells in an undifferentiated state.

SOX21 knockout mice display hair loss beginning from postnatal day 11. New hair regrowth was initiated a few days later but was followed by renewed hair loss. Sox21 is also expressed in the hair shaft cuticle in humans and consequently variants of the Sox21 gene could be responsible for some hair loss conditions in humans.

See also

• SOX genes