Section of Molecular Cytology and Van Leeuwenhoek Centre for Advanced Microscopy, Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Developmental Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, School of Medicine, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305-5458, USA
Development. 2018 Jun 26;145(12):dev165902. doi: 10.1242/dev.165902.
The history of the Wnt pathway is an adventure that takes us from mice and flies to frogs, zebrafish and beyond, sketching the outlines of a molecular signalling cascade along the way. Here, we specifically highlight the instrumental role that developmental biology has played throughout. We take the reader on a journey, starting with developmental genetics studies that identified some of the main molecular players, through developmental model organisms that helped unravel their biochemical function and cell biological activities. Culminating in complex analyses of stem cell fate and dynamic tissue growth, these efforts beautifully illustrate how different disciplines provided missing pieces of a puzzle. Together, they have shaped our mechanistic understanding of the Wnt pathway as a conserved signalling process in development and disease. Today, researchers are still uncovering additional roles for Wnts and other members of this multifaceted signal transduction pathway, opening up promising new avenues for clinical applications.
Wnt 通路的历史是一段冒险之旅，引领我们从老鼠和苍蝇，到青蛙、斑马鱼，甚至更远的地方，沿途描绘出分子信号级联的大致轮廓。在这里，我们特别强调了发育生物学在这一过程中所起的重要作用。我们将读者带入一个旅程，从发育遗传学研究开始，这些研究确定了一些主要的分子参与者，然后通过发育模式生物，帮助揭示它们的生化功能和细胞生物学活动。最后，对干细胞命运和动态组织生长进行复杂分析，这些努力生动地展示了不同学科如何提供拼图的缺失部分。它们共同构成了我们对 Wnt 通路作为发育和疾病中保守信号转导过程的机制理解。如今，研究人员仍在揭示 Wnts 和这个多方面信号转导通路的其他成员的更多作用，为临床应用开辟了有前途的新途径。
