First published online May 23, 2006
Development 133, 1202e (2006)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
Fat and Dachsous: a signal partnership
The Drosophila protocadherins Fat (Ft) and Dachsous (Ds) are
required for regulating imaginal disc growth, establishing planar cell
polarity (PCP), and for the proximodistal (PD) patterning of appendages.
Cadherins usually function as adhesion molecules, but Ft and Ds, which
interact with each other, could act as a receptor-ligand pair instead.
Matakatsu and Blair now report that this seems to happen in the establishment
of PCP but that Ds and Ft regulate growth and PD patterning independently (see
p. 2315). The
researchers used a structure-function approach to test which domains of Ft and
Ds mediate their various activities. They show, for example, that the
extracellular domain of Ft is not needed for its functions in growth, PCP
establishment and PD patterning but that the extracellular domain of Ds is
necessary and sufficient for its effects on PCP. These results suggest a
model, in which Ft has a receptor-like function that is mediated by its
intracellular domain while Ds has a ligand-like function in PCP.
Related articles in Development:
- Separating the adhesive and signaling functions of the Fat and Dachsous protocadherins
- Hitoshi Matakatsu and Seth S. Blair
Development 2006 133: 2315-2324.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
