title: Assessing Smoothened-mediated Hedgehog signaling in zebrafish.
abstract: Smoothened belongs to the class of atypical G protein-coupled receptors and serves as the transducing molecule in Hedgehog (Hh) signaling. Hh proteins comprise a family of secreted, cholesterol-modified ligands, which act both as morphogens and as signaling molecules. Binding of Hh proteins to their direct receptor, the transmembrane protein Patched-1, relieves Smoothened from tonal inhibition by Patched-1 and causes the translocation of Smoothened into the cilium. Here, the Hh signaling cascade is initiated and results in transcriptional activation of Hh target genes such as gli1 or patched-1. This induces a plethora of physiological outcomes including normal embryonic development, but also cancer, which is the reason why scientists aim to develop strategies to manipulate as well as monitor Smoothened-mediated Hh signaling. The zebrafish has emerged as a valuable tool for the assessment of Smoothened-mediated Hh signaling. In this chapter we thus describe how Smoothened-mediated Hh signaling can be monitored and also quantified using zebrafish embryos.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Teresa Casar
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Tena
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Philipp
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D055785:Gene Knockdown Techniques; D053823:Hedgehog Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D060172:Morpholinos / Q000235:genetics; D000072086:Smoothened Receptor / Q000502:physiology*; D059467:Transcriptome; D015027:Zebrafish; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D053823:Hedgehog Proteins; D060172:Morpholinos; D000072086:Smoothened Receptor; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins; C491021:smo protein, zebrafish
keywords: Hedgehog; Morpholino; Smoothened; Zebrafish; qPCR