title: Ce-wts-1 plays important roles in Caenorhabditis elegans development.
abstract: The Hippo-Warts pathway defines a novel signaling cascade involved in organ size control and tumor suppression. However, the developmental function of this pathway is less understood. Here we report that the Caenorhabditis elegans homolog of Warts, Ce-wts-1, plays important roles during worm development. The null allele of Ce-wts-1 causes L1 lethality. Partial loss of Ce-wts-1 function by RNAi reveals that Ce-wts-1 is involved in many developmental processes such as larval development, growth rate regulation, gut granule formation, pharynx development, dauer formation, lifespan and body length control. Genetic analyses show that Ce-wts-1 functions synergistically with the TGF-beta Sma/Mab pathway to regulate body length. In addition, CE-WTS-1::GFP is enriched near the inner cell membrane, implying its possible membrane-related function.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Science, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China.
authors.forename: Qingchun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Wenqing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Yongfei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zuoyan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Qichang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049628:Body Size / Q000235:genetics; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism; D007422:Intestines / Q000254:growth & development; D007814:Larva / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D010614:Pharynx / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; C544539:WTS-1 protein, C elegans