| First Author | Gay MH | Year | 2015 |
| Journal | BMC Biol | Volume | 13 |
| Pages | 24 | PubMed ID | 25885041 |
| Mgi Jnum | J:266784 | Mgi Id | MGI:6256875 |
| Doi | 10.1186/s12915-015-0134-4 | Citation | Gay MH, et al. (2015) Distinct adhesion-independent functions of beta-catenin control stage-specific sensory neurogenesis and proliferation. BMC Biol 13:24 |
| abstractText | BACKGROUND: beta-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 beta-catenin to coordinate cadherin-dependent cell adhesion and to act as a component of Wnt signal transduction. To distinguish between the divergent functions of beta-catenin during peripheral nervous system development, we made use of a mutant allele of beta-catenin that can mediate adhesion but not Wnt-induced TCF transcriptional activation. This allele was combined with various conditional inactivation approaches. RESULTS: We show that of all peripheral nervous system structures, only sensory dorsal root ganglia require beta-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 beta-catenin signaling. These can be divided into temporally sequential processes, each of which depends on a different function of beta-catenin. CONCLUSIONS: While 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 beta-catenin independent of TCF activation and adhesion. Thus, switching modes of beta-catenin function are associated with consecutive cell fate specification and stage-specific progenitor proliferation. |
