Spinal neurulation appears to be highly dependent on Grhl3 with diminished expression, as in the curly tail (ct/ct) strain (Gustavsson et al., 2007), complete loss in Grhl3-/-; (Yu et al., 2006) or tissue-specific loss in the hindgut (this study) all causing failure of PNP closure, leading to spina bifida. Here, GRHL3 is linked to spina bifida.