Distinct adhesion-independent functions of β-catenin control stage-specific sensory neurogenesis and proliferation

BMC Biology

Research Article

Max Hans-Peter Gay¹  Lukas Sommer¹  Lisette Paratore-Hari²  Konrad Basler³  Tomas Valenta³  Patrick Herr⁴ 

[1] Cell and Developmental Biology Division, Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland;Cell and Developmental Biology Division, Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland;Present address: University Hospital Zurich, Clinical Trials Center, Zurich, Switzerland;Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland;Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland;Present address: SciLifeLab, Stockholm, Sweden;

关键词: Sensory neurogenesis;    Cell fate decisions;    Cellular proliferation;    Canonical Wnt signaling;    Signaling versus adhesion function of β-catenin;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12915-015-0134-4

 received in 2014-10-06, accepted in 2015-03-30,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Backgroundβ-catenin plays a central role in multiple developmental processes. However, it has been difficult to study its pleiotropic effects, because of the dual capacity of β-catenin to coordinate cadherin-dependent cell adhesion and to act as a component of Wnt signal transduction. To distinguish between the divergent functions of β-catenin during peripheral nervous system development, we made use of a mutant allele of β-catenin that can mediate adhesion but not Wnt-induced TCF transcriptional activation. This allele was combined with various conditional inactivation approaches.ResultsWe show that of all peripheral nervous system structures, only sensory dorsal root ganglia require β-catenin for proper formation and growth. Surprisingly, however, dorsal root ganglia development is independent of cadherin-mediated cell adhesion. Rather, both progenitor cell proliferation and fate specification are controlled by β-catenin signaling. These can be divided into temporally sequential processes, each of which depends on a different function of β-catenin.ConclusionsWhile early stage proliferation and specific Neurog2- and Krox20-dependent waves of neuronal subtype specification involve activation of TCF transcription, late stage progenitor proliferation and Neurog1-marked sensory neurogenesis are regulated by a function of β-catenin independent of TCF activation and adhesion. Thus, switching modes of β-catenin function are associated with consecutive cell fate specification and stage-specific progenitor proliferation.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Gay et al. ; licensee BioMed Central. 2015. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.