title: In vivo Wnt signaling tracing through a transgenic biosensor fish reveals novel activity domains.
abstract: The creation of molecular tools able to unravel in vivo spatiotemporal activation of specific cell signaling events during cell migration, differentiation and morphogenesis is of great relevance to developmental cell biology. Here, we describe the generation, validation and applications of two transgenic reporter lines for Wnt/β-catenin signaling, named TCFsiam, and show that they are reliable and sensitive Wnt biosensors for in vivo studies. We demonstrate that these lines sensitively detect Wnt/β-catenin pathway activity in several cellular contexts, from sensory organs to cardiac valve patterning. We provide evidence that Wnt/β-catenin activity is involved in the formation and maintenance of the zebrafish CNS blood vessel network, on which sox10 neural crest-derived cells migrate and proliferate. We finally show that these transgenic lines allow for screening of Wnt signaling modifying compounds, tissue regeneration assessment as well as evaluation of potential Wnt/β-catenin genetic modulators.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, I-35121 Padova, Italy. enrico.moro.1@unipd.it
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Moro
authors.forename: Gunes
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ozhan-Kizil
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mongera
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Beis
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wierzbicki
authors.forename: Rodrigo M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: Despina
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bournele
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Domenichini
authors.forename: Leonardo E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Valdivia
authors.forename: Lawrence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lum
authors.forename: Chuo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: James F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Amatruda
authors.forename: Natascia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tiso
authors.forename: Gilbert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Weidinger
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Argenton
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002465:Cell Movement; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D060449:Wnt Signaling Pathway; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology / Q000502:physiology*