L5 - Hh and Wnt Signalling Flashcards
What are Hh and Wnt signalling involved in?
Patterning tissues
Development of organs
Regulation of stem cell fate/cell division
Maintenance and initiation of cancer
How was Hh discovered?
Discovered by Nüsslein-Volhard and Wieschaus - 1980
In Drosophila
Segment polarity gene
How was Wnt discovered?
Wg + int = Wnt
In mice
How do Hh and Wg interact in Drosophila embryos?
Hh acts in a reciprocal loop with Wg
During segmentation in flies – Hh and Wg maintain each other’s expression in an autoregulatory loop
- Genes are dependent on one another
- Loss of Wg = loss of Hh expression
What are the different types of Hh in multicellular animals?
Sonic Hedgehog, Desert Hedgehog, Indian hedgehog
No Hh in C.elegans
What are the different types of Wg in multicellular animals?
18 Wnts
Hh signalling method
- Hh translated with an N-terminal signal sequence - targets them to secretory pathway
- Signal sequence is removed and the protein undergoes autoproteolytic cleavage
- Catalysed by the C-terminal of the protein - C-terminus of N-terminal coupled to cholesterol
- N-terminus of N-terminal coupled to Palmitoyl group
- Both cholesterol and palmitate are hydrophobic
- Render Hh insoluble in water and target it to membranes
Palmitoyl and cholesterol are both?
Hydrophobic
Hh signalling - short range
Hydrophobicity of Hh would make it impossible for it to leave cell membrane
Only allow signalling to neighbouring cells
Hh signalling - long range
Action of Dispatched protein and Scube glycoproteins important
- Help load Hh molecules on lipoprotein particles
Cytonemes
In the ECM - heparan sulfate proteoglycans
Wt signalling method
- Produced with a signaling sequence that is cleaved off when it enters the secretory pathway
- Modified by palmitoylation – palmitoleic acid modification of ser209
- Palmitate is hydrophobic
- Hydrophobicity makes Wnt insoluble in water
Wt signalling - long range
Lipoprotein particles or cytonemes - present ligand to other cells
Wntless 7 pass transmembrane protein – helps Wnt get to membrane
In the ECM - heparan sulfate proteoglycans
What are cytonemes?
Long cellular protrusions
Wnt producing cell use them to touch other cells and signal to them to change their behavior
Hh signalling model
Signal transduction model
Proposed by Hooper and Scott - 2005
Hh signalling - Ptc gene
12 pass transmembrane protein
Can bind hedgehog
Acts in a negative way - continuously inhibits a positively acting component - Smo - when the ligand is absent
Hh signalling - Smo gene
7 pass transmembrane protein
Acts in a positive way
What sort of complex does Ptc and Smo form?
Not present in a stoichiometric complex
What was discovered about Ptc in Drosophila experiments?
Single Ptc molecule can inhibit a large number of Smo molecules
What does Ptc regulate?
Subcellular distribution and stability of Smo
Trafficking of Smo to a compartment where Smo gets degraded
What does Ptc do if no Hh is present?
Ptc stops Smo reaching cell surface
What does Ptc do if Hh is present?
Ptc binds to HH and they both get internalized and degraded
Smo gets trafficked to cell surface
What 3 changes does Smo go through?
Relocation
Accumulation
Phosphorylation
If no Hh in cilia?
Ptc1 is localised to the cilium of the cell and smo is excluded from this territory
Hh binding to Ptc is removed from cilium
Allows smo to accumulate and initiate signaling
What is Ci?
A transcription factor