Regulation of the Hedgehog and Wingless signalling pathways by the F-box/WD40-repeat protein Slimb

J Jiang, G Struhl - Nature, 1998 - nature.com
Nature, 1998nature.com
Abstract Members of the Hedgehog (Hh) and Wnt/Wingless (Wg) families of secreted
proteins control many aspects of growth and patterning during animal development,. Hh
signal transduction leads to increased stability of a transcription factor, Cubitus interruptus
(Ci),, whereas Wg signal transduction causes increased stability of Armadillo (Arm/β-
catenin), a possible co-factor for thetranscriptional regulator Lef1/TCF. Here we describe a
new gene, slimb (for supernumerary limbs), which negatively regulates both of these signal …
Abstract
Members of the Hedgehog (Hh) and Wnt/Wingless (Wg) families of secreted proteins control many aspects of growth and patterning during animal development,. Hh signal transduction leads to increased stability of a transcription factor, Cubitus interruptus (Ci),, whereas Wg signal transduction causes increased stability of Armadillo (Arm/β-catenin), a possible co-factor for thetranscriptional regulator Lef1/TCF. Here we describe a new gene, slimb (for supernumerary limbs), which negatively regulates both of these signal transduction pathways. Loss of function of slimb results in a cell-autonomous accumulation of high levels of both Ci and Arm, and the ectopic expression of both Hh and Wg responsive genes. The slimb gene encodes a conserved F-box/WD40-repeat protein related to Cdc4p, a protein in budding yeast that targets cell-cycle regulators for degradation by the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway,,. We propose that Slimb protein normally targets Ci and Arm for processing or degradation by the ubiquitin/proteasomepathway, and that Hh and Wg regulate gene expression at least in part by inducing changes in Ci and Arm, which protect them from Slimb-mediated proteolysis.
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