PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Smalley, Matthew J.
AU  - Signoret, Nathalie
AU  - Robertson, David
AU  - Tilley, Alan
AU  - Hann, Anthony
AU  - Ewan, Ken
AU  - Ding, Yanning
AU  - Paterson, Hugh
AU  - Dale, Trevor C.
TI  - Dishevelled (Dvl-2) activates canonical Wnt signalling in the absence of cytoplasmic puncta
AID  - 10.1242/jcs.02647
DP  - 2005 Nov 15
TA  - Journal of Cell Science
PG  - 5279--5289
VI  - 118
IP  - 22
4099  - http://jcs.biologists.org/content/118/22/5279.short
4100  - http://jcs.biologists.org/content/118/22/5279.full
SO  - J. Cell Sci.2005 Nov 15; 118
AB  - Dishevelled family proteins are multidomain intracellular transducers of Wnt signals. Ectopically expressed mammalian Dishevelled 2 (Dvl-2) activates downstream signalling and localises to cytoplasmic puncta. It has been suggested that these Dvl-2-containing structures correspond to intracellular vesicles and may be involved in the Wnt signal transduction process. We report that cytoplasmic puncta are primarily formed in cells expressing Dvl-2 at high levels. Lower levels of expression can activate signalling without forming puncta. The structures do not localise with markers of the early or late endocytic pathway and time-lapse analysis demonstrates that Dvl-2 puncta move in a random fashion over short distances but do not originate from the plasma membrane. Based on our findings, we propose that Dvl-2 puncta are protein aggregates that are not required for signalling.