Publication Date:
2014-01-07
Description:
Wnts are evolutionarily conserved secreted signalling proteins that, in various developmental contexts, spread from their site of synthesis to form a gradient and activate target-gene expression at a distance. However, the requirement for Wnts to spread has never been directly tested. Here we used genome engineering to replace the endogenous wingless gene, which encodes the main Drosophila Wnt, with one that expresses a membrane-tethered form of the protein. Surprisingly, the resulting flies were viable and produced normally patterned appendages of nearly the right size, albeit with a delay. We show that, in the prospective wing, prolonged wingless transcription followed by memory of earlier signalling allows persistent expression of relevant target genes. We suggest therefore that the spread of Wingless is dispensable for patterning and growth even though it probably contributes to increasing cell proliferation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Alexandre, Cyrille -- Baena-Lopez, Alberto -- Vincent, Jean-Paul -- 082694/Z/07/Z/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- U117584268/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2014 Jan 9;505(7482):180-5. doi: 10.1038/nature12879. Epub 2013 Dec 25.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] MRC National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK [2]. ; MRC National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24390349" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Alleles
;
Animals
;
*Body Patterning/genetics
;
Cell Membrane/*metabolism
;
Cell Proliferation
;
Chemokine CX3CL1/metabolism
;
Diffusion
;
Drosophila Proteins/deficiency/genetics/*metabolism
;
Drosophila melanogaster/cytology/genetics/*growth & development/*metabolism
;
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
;
Mutation
;
Organ Specificity
;
Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics
;
Signal Transduction
;
Time Factors
;
Transcription, Genetic
;
Wings, Animal/cytology/growth & development/metabolism
;
Wnt1 Protein/deficiency/genetics/*metabolism
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink
