Wnt/beta-catenin signaling: new (and old) players and new insights.
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.
Huang
He
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The F M Kirby Neurobiology Center, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
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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*
D060466:Axin Protein; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins; D051153:Wnt Proteins; D051176:beta Catenin