First published online June 8, 2005
Development 132, 1305e (2005)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
Transporting the Hh signal to Gli
The Hedgehog (Hh) signalling pathway regulates growth and patterning in
invertebrates and vertebrates. Although this pathway is well delineated in
Drosophila, the more complex vertebrate pathway is not fully
understood. Liu and colleagues now reveal that during mouse limb development,
intraflagellar transport (IFT) - the transport of cargos along microtubules -
regulates the activator and repressor functions of Gli transcription factors,
the principal targets of Hh signalling (see
p. 3103). They report
that mice carrying hypomorphic mutations in Ift88 or Ift52,
which encode proteins needed for cilia formation, have defects in ventral
neural cell specification and develop polydactyly owing to defects in Gli3
processing and to the loss of Hh signalling. They conclude that IFT is an
essential component of the vertebrate Hh ligand-induced signalling cascade
that acts downstream of Hh to regulate both Gli activator function and the
proteolytic processing of Gli3 into a transcriptional
repressor.
Related articles in Development:
- Mouse intraflagellar transport proteins regulate both the activator and repressor functions of Gli transcription factors
- Aimin Liu, Baolin Wang, and Lee A. Niswander
Development 2005 132: 3103-3111.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
