| Speaker: |
Philippa Francis-West
King's College London |
| Title: |
Developmental roles of Dchs1-Fat4 signaling in mice |
| Summary : | The Fat signaling pathway is named for a Drosophila gene, fat, which encodes a large cadherin protein that acts as a transmembrane receptor. Another large cadherin, Dachsous, acts as a ligand for Fat. In Drosophila, Fat signaling acts in multiple tissues, influencing both gene expression and planar cell polarity. The influence of Fat signaling on gene expression is effected through an intersection with the Hippo signaling pathway, and plays important roles in growth control. In order to investigate requirements for Fat signaling in mammals, we created gene targeted mutations in a murine Dachsous homologue, Dchs1. We have investigated the phenotypes of Dchs1 mutant mice in multiple tissues, and compared them to Fat4 mice. Our studies indicate that Dchs1 and Fat4 act as a ligand-receptor pair in mammals, and have identified novel requirements for Fat signaling in mammalian tissues. |
