0000000000080637
AUTHOR
Fabio Valenti
Study on b-Catenins mechanisms of regulation in zebrafish blastula embryo
Background: â-catenin is a central component of the cadherin cell adhesion complex but also it plays an essential role in the canonical-Wingless/Wnt signaling pathway. In vertebrates, one of the initial steps for the establishment of the correct dorso-ventral (D/V) pattern in the embryo is the cytoplasmic accumulation followed by nuclear localization of â-catenin in the cells of the prospective dorsal side of the embryo. In zebrafish there are two â-catenins, 92,7% identical. The mutant fish line Ichabod (ich), with a mutation in the region of the â-catenin2 promoter that causes a decrease in the maternal accumulation of â-catenin2 protein in the embryos, fail to nuclear localize â- catenin…
The Increase in Maternal Expression ofaxin1andaxin2Contribute to the Zebrafish MutantIchabodVentralized Phenotype
β-catenin is a central effector of the Wnt pathway and one of the players in Ca+-dependent cell-cell adhesion. While many wnts are present and expressed in vertebrates, only one β-catenin exists in the majority of the organisms. One intriguing exception is zebrafish that carries two genes for β-catenin. The maternal recessive mutation ichabod presents very low levels of β-catenin2 that in turn affects dorsal axis formation, suggesting that β-catenin1 is incapable to compensate for β-catenin2 loss and raising the question of whether these two β-catenins may have differential roles during early axis specification. Here we identify a specific antibody that can discriminate selectively for β-ca…