title: Wnt/beta-catenin signaling: new (and old) players and new insights.
abstract: Wnt/beta-catenin signaling has central roles in embryogenesis and human diseases including cancer. A central scheme of the Wnt pathway is to stabilize the transcription coactivator beta-catenin by preventing its phosphorylation-dependent degradation. Significant progress has been made toward the understanding of this crucial regulatory pathway, including the protein complex that promotes beta-catenin phosphorylation-degradation, and the mechanism by which the extracellular Wnt ligand engages cell surface receptors to inhibit beta-catenin phosphorylation-degradation. Here we review some recent discoveries in these two areas, and highlight some crucial questions that remain to be resolved.
authors.affiliation: The F M Kirby Neurobiology Center, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: He
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D060466:Axin Protein; D006801:Humans; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D051176:beta Catenin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D060466:Axin Protein; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins; D051153:Wnt Proteins; D051176:beta Catenin