Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1048, USA.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2009 Aug;1(2):a002881. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a002881.
One of the early surprises in the study of cell adhesion was the discovery that beta-catenin plays dual roles, serving as an essential component of cadherin-based cell-cell adherens junctions and also serving as the key regulated effector of the Wnt signaling pathway. Here, we review our current model of Wnt signaling and discuss how recent work using model organisms has advanced our understanding of the roles Wnt signaling plays in both normal development and in disease. These data help flesh out the mechanisms of signaling from the membrane to the nucleus, revealing new protein players and providing novel information about known components of the pathway.
细胞黏附研究中的一个早期惊喜是发现β-连环蛋白（β-catenin）具有双重作用，它既是钙黏蛋白（cadherin）为基础的细胞-细胞黏附连接的必需组成部分，也是 Wnt 信号通路的关键调节效应因子。在这里，我们回顾了当前的 Wnt 信号模型，并讨论了最近使用模式生物进行的工作如何增进我们对 Wnt 信号在正常发育和疾病中的作用的理解。这些数据有助于阐明从膜到核的信号转导机制，揭示新的蛋白因子，并为该通路的已知成分提供新的信息。
