title: Cell polarity: The missing link in skeletal morphogenesis?
abstract: Despite extensive genetic analysis of the dynamic multi-phase process that transforms a small population of lateral plate mesoderm into the mature limb skeleton, the mechanisms by which signaling pathways regulate cellular behaviors to generate morphogenetic forces are not known. Recently, a series of papers have offered the intriguing possibility that regulated cell polarity fine-tunes the morphogenetic process via orienting cell axes, division planes and cell movements. Wnt5a-mediated non-canonical signaling, which may include planar cell polarity, has emerged as a common thread in the otherwise distinct signaling networks that regulate morphogenesis in each phase of limb development. These findings position the limb as a key model to elucidate how global tissue patterning pathways direct local differences in cell behavior that, in turn, generate growth and form.
authors: Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
authors: Sarah M
authors: SM
authors: Romereim
authors: Andrew T
authors: AT
authors: Dudley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001846:Bone Development; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism; D016764:Cell Polarity; D005121:Extremities / Q000196:embryology / Q000254:growth & development; D006801:Humans; D009024:Morphogenesis; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D051153:Wnt Proteins