Editorial: Enamel Research: Mechanisms and Characterization

The idea to compile the present collection of articles on the topic on dental enamel formation and maturation was born in the course of a discussion over a glass of wine during the 11th International Conference on the Chemistry and Biology of Mineralized Tissues (ICCBMT) in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in November 2013. Both of us felt that several issues specific to the mineralization of enamel deserved further exploration, and thus motivated, we approached the supportive editorial team at Frontiers. Over the course of the coming months a total of 15 scientists with a passion for enamel agreed to contribute to what is now compiled as an e-book. Although it may seem a long time since its conception, this publication addresses some very important and contemporary aspects of enamel biology and comes as a timely prelude to the upcoming Conferences, A number of prominent enamel researchers have made this e-book what it is today. We have somewhat arbitrarily grouped all contributions into three parts. The first part describes and discusses general concepts and limitations of current approaches to understanding enamel biology. Robinson's Introduction provides an excellent historical review of multiple events occurring during the enamel maturation stage and their relationships to enamel dysplasias, while the article by Ganss and Abbarin highlights the role of recently identified proteins beyond the enamel maturation stage. Pugach and Gibson address the benefits and limitations of mouse models to study enamel development, and Goldberg et al. stress the importance of comparative studies between mouse molars and incisors to appreciate the full complexity of enamel development. Sarkar et al. draw comparative conclusions between two of the very few available ameloblast-like cell lines. Babajko et al. describe the role of the transcription factor MSX2 in ameloblasts and highlight its functional analogies with other mineralized tissues. The second part focuses on individual aspects of enamel proteins and their processing during the formation and mineralization of enamel. The role of specific regions within the most prominent enamel protein, amelogenin, is discussed in two different articles, by Lu et al., as well as Gopinathan et al.. Both relate to hydroxyapatite binding properties and the control of biomineralization. Mazumder et al. discuss the functional relevance of interactions between ameloblastin and amelogenin for enamel mineralization. Margolis et al. highlight the role and importance of mineralization inhibitors in enamel formation and maturation. The next two articles, authored by Zhu et al., as well as …