dishevelled and armadillo act in the Wingless signalling pathway in Drosophila

THE Wnt genes encode conserved secreted proteins that play a role in normal development and tumorigenesis1,2. Little is known about the signal transduction pathways of Wnt gene products. One of the best characterized Wnt family members is the Drosophila segment polarity gene wingless 3–6. We have investigated whether segment polarity genes with a wingless-like phenotype mediate the wingless signal. We used a wingless transgene controlled by a heat-shock promoter for genetic epistasis experiments. We show that wingless acts through dishevelled and armadillo to affect the expression of the homeobox gene engrailed and cuticle differentiation.

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