Sex Determining Region Y Box Protein 10 (SOX10)

SOX10 encodes a member of the SOX (SRY-related HMG-box) family of transcription factors involved in the regulation of embryonic development and in the determination of the cell fate. The encoded protein may act as a transcriptional activator after forming a protein complex with other proteins. This protein acts as a nucleocytoplasmic shuttle protein and is important for neural crest and peripheral nervous system development. During development, SOX10 first appeared in the forming neural crest and continued to be expressed as these cells contributed to the forming peripheral nervous system and finally differentiated into Schwann cells. In the central nervous system, SOX10 transcripts were originally confined to glial precursors and later detected in oligodendrocytes of the adult brain.