Importantly, we observed that the depletion of Ovol2 in MIN6 and EndoC-bH1 does not alter the expression β- of β-TFs or any other genes preserving the functional identity of β-cells, indicating that dysregulation of the epithelial gene programme within β-cells does not contribute to their dedifferentiation in diabetes. The gene discussed is OVOL2; the disease is diabetes mellitus.