Kikuchi Akira
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Osaka University, Japan.
Clin Calcium. 2013 Jun;23(6):799-807.
Wnt signaling study was started with Drosophila genetic analyses in 1970' and was expanded into various field including developmental biology and tumor biology. Wnt activates multiple intracellular signaling cascades by binding to its cell surface receptors, and the canonical pathway, which is mediated byβ-catenin, has been most extensively studied. It was clarified that the whole picture of the mechanisms for the degradation and stabilization ofβ-catenin. There are many genes which are regulated by canonical Wnt signaling, and among them some genes play an essential role for stem cell functions.
Wnt信号研究始于20世纪70年代的果蝇遗传学分析，并扩展到包括发育生物学和肿瘤生物学在内的各个领域。Wnt通过与其细胞表面受体结合激活多种细胞内信号级联反应，其中由β-连环蛋白介导的经典途径得到了最广泛的研究。β-连环蛋白降解和稳定机制的全貌已得以阐明。有许多基因受经典Wnt信号调控，其中一些基因对干细胞功能起着至关重要的作用。
