Strange as it may seem: the many links between Wnt signaling, planar cell polarity, and cilia

  1. Brian Mitchell2
  1. 1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Section of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA;
  2. 2Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA

    Abstract

    Cilia are important cellular structures that have been implicated in a variety of signaling cascades. In this review, we discuss the current evidence for and against a link between cilia and both the canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway and the noncanonical Wnt/planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway. Furthermore, we address the evidence implicating a role for PCP components in ciliogenesis. Given the lack of consensus in the field, we use new data on the control of ciliary protein localization as a basis for proposing new models by which cell type-specific regulation of ciliary components via differential transport, regulated entry and exit, or diffusion barriers might generate context-dependent functions for cilia.

    Keywords

    Footnotes

    Freely available online through the Genes & Development Open Access option.

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