Peifer M, Orsulic S, Pai L M, Loureiro J
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599-3280.
Dev Suppl. 1993:163-76.
Cells must cooperate and communicate to form a multicellular animal. Information about the molecules required for these processes have come from a variety of sources; the convergence between the studies of particular molecules by vertebrate cell biologists and the genes identified by scientists investigating development in Drosophila has been especially fruitful. We are interested in the connection between cadherin proteins that regulate cell-cell adhesion and the wingless/wnt-1 cell-cell signaling molecules controlling pattern formation during development. The Drosophila segment polarity gene armadillo, homolog of the vertebrate adherens junction protein beta-catenin, is required for both cell adhesion and wg signaling. We review what is known about wingless signaling in Drosophila, and discuss the role of cell-cell junctions in both cell adhesion and cell communication. We then describe the results of our preliminary structure-function analysis of Armadillo protein in both cell adhesion and wingless signaling. Finally, we discuss evidence supporting a direct role for Armadillo and adherens junction in transduction of wingless signal.
细胞必须相互协作与沟通才能形成多细胞动物。有关这些过程所需分子的信息来自多种来源；脊椎动物细胞生物学家对特定分子的研究与研究果蝇发育的科学家所鉴定的基因之间的融合尤其富有成果。我们感兴趣的是调节细胞间粘附的钙粘蛋白与控制发育过程中模式形成的无翅/ wnt - 1细胞间信号分子之间的联系。果蝇节段极性基因犰狳是脊椎动物粘着连接蛋白β - 连环蛋白的同源物，在细胞粘附和wg信号传导中均是必需的。我们回顾了果蝇中已知的无翅信号传导情况，并讨论了细胞间连接在细胞粘附和细胞通讯中的作用。然后我们描述了对犰狳蛋白在细胞粘附和无翅信号传导方面进行初步结构 - 功能分析的结果。最后，我们讨论了支持犰狳和粘着连接在无翅信号转导中直接作用的证据。
