Saxena, KritikaSrikrishnan, SyamanthakCelià-Terrassa, ToniJolly, Mohit Kumar2022-03-012022-03-012022Saxena K, Srikrishnan S, Celia-Terrassa T, Jolly. OVOL1/2: drivers of epithelial differentiation in development, disease, and reprogramming. Cells Tissues Organs. 2022;211(2):183-92. DOI: 10.1159/0005113831422-6405http://hdl.handle.net/10230/52599OVOL proteins (OVOL1 and OVOL2), vertebrate homologs of Drosophila OVO, are critical regulators of epithelial lineage determination and differentiation during embryonic development in tissues such as kidney, skin, mammary epithelia, and testis. OVOL can inhibit epithelial-mesenchymal transition and/or can promote mesenchymal-epithelial transition. Moreover, they can regulate the stemness of cancer cells, thus playing an important role during cancer cell metastasis. Due to their central role in differentiation and maintenance of epithelial lineage, OVOL overexpression has been shown to be capable of reprogramming fibroblasts to epithelial cells. Here, we review the roles of OVOL-mediated epithelial differentiation across multiple contexts, including embryonic development, cancer progression, and cellular reprogramming.application/pdfeng© 2020 S. Karger AG, Basel http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000511383. This is the peer-reviewed but unedited manuscript version of the following article: Saxena K, Srikrishnan S, Celia-Terrassa T, Jolly. OVOL1/2: drivers of epithelial differentiation in development, disease, and reprogramming. Cells Tissues Organs. 2022;211(2):183-92. DOI: 10.1159/000511383. The final, published version is available at https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/511383info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000511383Epithelial differentiationEpithelial-mesenchymal transitionMesenchymal-epithelial transitionOVOL1OVOL2info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess