Notch and the awesome power of genetics.
Notch is a receptor that mediates cell-cell interactions in animal development, and aberrations in Notch signal transduction can cause cancer and other human diseases. Here, I describe the major advances in the Notch field from the identification of the first mutant in Drosophila almost a century ago through the elucidation of the unusual mechanism of signal transduction a little over a decade ago. As an essay for the GENETICS Perspectives series, it is my personal and critical commentary as well as an historical account of discovery.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Department of Genetics and Development, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. isg4@columbia.edu
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Greenwald
D000818:Animals; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena / Q000235:genetics; D004330:Drosophila / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005823:Genetics; D006801:Humans; D009857:Oncogenes / Q000235:genetics; D051880:Receptors, Notch / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
D051880:Receptors, Notch