title: Bridging Decapentaplegic and Wingless signaling in Drosophila wings through repression of naked cuticle by Brinker.
abstract: Wnts and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are signaling elements that are crucial for a variety of events in animal development. In Drosophila, Wingless (Wg, a Wnt ligand) and Decapentaplegic (Dpp, a BMP homolog) are thought to function through distinct signal transduction pathways and independently direct the patterning of the wing. However, recent studies suggest that Mothers against Dpp (Mad), the key transducer of Dpp signaling, might serve as a node for the crosstalk between these two pathways, and both positive and negative roles of Mad in Wg signaling have been suggested. Here, we describe a novel molecular mechanism by which Dpp signaling suppresses Wg outputs. Brinker (Brk), a transcriptional repressor that is downregulated by Dpp, directly represses naked cuticle (nkd), which encodes a feedback inhibitor of Wg signaling, in vitro and in vivo. Through genetic studies, we demonstrate that Brk is required for Wg target gene expression in fly wing imaginal discs and that loss or gain of brk during wing development mimics loss or gain of Wg signaling, respectively. Finally, we show that Dpp positively regulates the expression of nkd and negatively regulates the Wg target gene Distal-less (Dll). These data support a model in which different signaling pathways interact via a negative-feedback mechanism. Such a mechanism might explain how organs coordinate inputs from multiple signaling cues.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Life Sciences, MOE Key Laboratory of Developmental Genes and Human Diseases, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Da
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D047369:Chromatin Immunoprecipitation; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000378:metabolism*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D007438:Introns; D008024:Ligands; D008957:Models, Genetic; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D051155:Wnt1 Protein / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D008024:Ligands; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D051153:Wnt Proteins; D051155:Wnt1 Protein; C118082:brk protein, Drosophila; C064196:dpp protein, Drosophila; C405336:nkd protein, Drosophila; C074622:wg protein, Drosophila