Holzem Michaela, Boutros Michael, Holstein Thomas W
Division of Signalling and Functional Genomics, German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology & BioQuant, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
Nat Rev Genet. 2024 Jul;25(7):500-512. doi: 10.1038/s41576-024-00699-w. Epub 2024 Feb 19.
The Wnt signal transduction pathway has essential roles in the formation of the primary body axis during development, cellular differentiation and tissue homeostasis. This animal-specific pathway has been studied extensively in contexts ranging from developmental biology to medicine for more than 40 years. Despite its physiological importance, an understanding of the evolutionary origin and primary function of Wnt signalling has begun to emerge only recently. Recent studies on very basal metazoan species have shown high levels of conservation of components of both canonical and non-canonical Wnt signalling pathways. Furthermore, some pathway proteins have been described also in non-animal species, suggesting that recruitment and functional adaptation of these factors has occurred in metazoans. In this Review, we summarize the current state of research regarding the evolutionary origin of Wnt signalling, its ancestral function and the characteristics of the primal Wnt ligand, with emphasis on the importance of genomic studies in various pre-metazoan and basal metazoan species.
Wnt信号转导通路在发育过程中的初级体轴形成、细胞分化和组织稳态维持中发挥着重要作用。这条动物特有的通路在从发育生物学到医学等多个领域已经被广泛研究了40多年。尽管其具有重要的生理意义，但直到最近人们才开始了解Wnt信号的进化起源和主要功能。最近对非常基础的后生动物物种的研究表明，经典和非经典Wnt信号通路的组成成分都具有高度的保守性。此外，在非动物物种中也发现了一些该通路的蛋白质，这表明这些因子是在后生动物中被招募并发生功能适应的。在这篇综述中，我们总结了关于Wnt信号进化起源、其祖先功能以及原始Wnt配体特征的研究现状，重点强调了基因组研究在各种前寒武纪和基础后生动物物种中的重要性。
