title: Powerful Drosophila screens that paved the wingless pathway.
abstract: The Wnt/Wingless (Wg) signaling cascade controls a number of biological processes in animal development and adult life; aberrant Wnt/Wg signaling can cause diseases. In the 1980s genes were discovered that encode core Wnt/Wg pathway components: their mutant phenotypes were similar and an outline of a signaling cascade emerged. Over the years our knowledge of this important signaling system increased and more components were uncovered that are instrumental for Wnt/Wg secretion and transduction. Here we provide an overview of these discoveries, the technologies involved, with a particular focus on the important role Drosophila screens played in this process.
authors.affiliation: a University of Zurich; Institute of Molecular Life Sciences ; Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Fabian Heinz
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Jenny
authors.forename: Konrad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Basler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000235:genetics; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D051155:Wnt1 Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D051155:Wnt1 Protein; C074622:wg protein, Drosophila
keywords: Drosophila melanogaster; Wg; Wnt; Wnt signaling; development; genetic screens; genetics; wingless signaling; β-catenin