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

WNT/PCP信号从果蝇到人类在进化上是保守的，与癌症和阿尔茨海默病高度相关。然而，最近的研究认为，关于Wnt配体在调节PCP信号转导中的作用，存在着相互矛盾的结果。我们的研究利用了一个优秀的模型系统来阐明这个问题，揭示了柱形成的进化保守机制。在这个项目中，我们产生了敲入等位基因来可视化PCP蛋白的亚细胞分布；2)我们通过结合特定的神经元-核心柱状神经元中特异表达FLPase的FLPase菌株和敲入菌株来鉴定PCP蛋白在单核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.