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First published online May 20, 2008

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β-catenin: to the membrane and back

The canonical Wnt signalling pathway is a key regulator of cell proliferation. When an extracellular Wnt ligand is present, β-catenin – which is otherwise phosphorylated by the axin-containing destruction complex and subsequently degraded – accumulates in the nucleus and activates target genes. By contrast, axin redistributes to the plasma membrane, which has led to the suggestion that axin relocation is the key event that halts β-catenin destruction. Now, however, Maarten Fornerod and colleagues (p. 1793) describe a new step in the nuclear translocation of β-catenin. The authors show that, upon Wnt3a stimulation, unphosphorylated β-catenin is recruited to the plasma membrane (the protein can be detected at the membrane in E-cadherin^–/– cells, indicating that it is distinct from E-cadherin-bound, junctional β-catenin). The redistribution of β-catenin to the membrane is an early event in the Wnt response and β-catenin colocalises with the Wnt co-receptor LRP6, and with axin and APC (another component of the destruction complex). Moreover, the association of β-catenin with LRP6 increases its transcriptional activity. These results imply that β-catenin is activated in a Wnt-receptor complex at the plasma membrane, before translocating to the nucleus.

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Plasma membrane recruitment of dephosphorylated β-catenin upon activation of the Wnt pathway

Jolita Hendriksen, Marnix Jansen, Carolyn M. Brown, Hella van der Velde, Marco van Ham, Niels Galjart, G. Johan Offerhaus, Francois Fagotto, and Maarten Fornerod
JCS 2008 121: 1793-1802. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?