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Evolutionarily conserved developmental pathways
Wingless acts both within compartments and between compartment boundaries to promote a seamless transition between the alternative fates of neighboring cells. Wingless functions in Drosophila as a segment polarity gene. Frizzled is a seven-pass transmembrane receptor involved in tissue patterning and symmetry. Other proteins listed are part of the adherens junction that functions to connect the homophilic cell adhesion protein E-cadherin to the cell's cytoskeleton. Drosophila Wingless and Vertebrate Wnts target engrailed in brain compartmentalization and they target apterous (Vertebrate homologs: LIM domain proteins) and engrailed in limb compartmentalization. Notch and Wingless pathways talk to each other through Dishevelled, which is an integral part of the Wingless pathway and physically interactions with the Notch carboxyl terminus.
Drosophila Homologs in other species
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Wingless C. elegans: Lin-44
Mammals: Wnt-1 and Wnt-7a
Frizzled2 C. elegans: Lin-17
Dishevelled Xenopus: Xdsh
Mammals: Dvl-1 and Dvl-2
Shaggy/Zeste white 3 Xenopus: Xgsk-3
Mammals: Glycogen synthase kinase 3
Armadillo Vertebrates: ß-catenin - Plakoglobin
Singed Other species: Fascin
D alpha-catenin Vertebrates: alpha-catenin
APC-like Human: Adenomatous polyposis coli
Discs large Human: DLG
Shotgun (E-cadherin) Mammals: E-cadherin
DLAR Human: LAR
Engrailed Mammals: Engrailed1
Apterous Mammals: LMX1
date revised: 13 Oct 96
Developmental Pathways conserved in Evolution
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