Elucidating roles of Wnt gradients and PCP signaling in establishing neural polarity during column formation

从果蝇到人类，Wnt/PCP信号在进化上是保守的，并且与癌症和阿尔茨海默病高度相关。然而，最近的研究对Wnt配体在调节PCP信号传导中的作用提出了矛盾的结果。我们的研究利用了一个很好的模型系统，通过揭示柱形成的进化保守机制来澄清这个问题。在这个项目中，我们已经生成了敲入等位基因来可视化PCP蛋白的亚细胞分布；2)通过将核心柱状神经元特异性表达FLPase的特异性神经元FLPase菌株与敲入菌株结合，鉴定了PCP蛋白在信号核心柱状神经元中的亚细胞分布。这些发现和结果为我们的研究提供了重要的依据。

Wnt/PCP signaling is evolutionarily conserved from Drosophila to humans and is highly related to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Nevertheless, recent studies argue contradictory results about the roles of Wnt ligands in regulating PCP signaling. Our study utilizes an excellent model system to clarify this problem by revealing evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of column formation.In this project, we have generated knock-in alleles to visualized subcellular distribution of PCP proteins; 2) we identified the subcellular distribution of PCP proteins in the singal core columnar neurons by combining specific neurons-FLPase strains that express FLPase specifically in core columnar neurons with the knock-in strains. These findings and results provide an important basis for our research.