title: Wnt signalling in Caenorhabditis elegans: regulating repressors and polarizing the cytoskeleton.
abstract: Wnt proteins are secreted, cysteine-rich glycoprotein ligands with numerous roles during animal development. Recent studies of endoderm induction during embryogenesis in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans challenge the prevailing view that Wnt signalling specifies cell fate by converting transcriptional repressors into activators. Instead, a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-related pathway converges with Wnt signalling in C. elegans to relieve transcriptional repression. Furthermore, Wnt signalling induces endoderm in part by aligning the mitotic spindle in a responding cell along the anterior-posterior body axis. To orient mitotic spindles, Wnt signalling might directly target the cytoskeleton, prior to any regulation of gene transcription in responding cells.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Dept of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Pharmacology Box 357370, Seattle, WA 98195-7370, USA.
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Thorpe
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schlesinger
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bowerman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D016764:Cell Polarity; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000502:physiology*; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051153:Wnt Proteins; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins
chemical_list: D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D051153:Wnt Proteins; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins