Frodo Links Dishevelled to the p120-Catenin/Kaiso Pathway: Distinct Catenin Subfamilies Promote Wnt Signals

Jae il Park, Hong Ji, Sohee Jun, Dongmin Gu, Hiroki Hikasa, Lei Li, Sergei Y. Sokol, Pierre D D. McCrea

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

84 Scopus citations

Abstract

p120-catenin is an Arm repeat protein that interacts with varied components such as cadherin, small G proteins, kinases, and the Kaiso transcriptional repressor. Despite recent advances in understanding the roles that p120-catenin and Kaiso play in downstream modulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling, the identity of the upstream regulators of the p120-catenin/Kaiso pathway have remained unclear. Here, we find that p120-catenin binds Frodo, which itself interacts with the Wnt pathway protein Dishevelled (Dsh). In Xenopus laevis, we demonstrate that Wnt signals result in Frodo-mediated stabilization of p120-catenin, which, in turn, promotes Kaiso sequestration or removal from the nucleus. Our results point to Dsh and Frodo as upstream regulators of the p120-catenin/Kaiso signaling pathway. Importantly, this suggests that Wnt signals acting through Dsh regulate the stability of p120-catenin in addition to that of β-catenin, and that each catenin promotes its respective signal in parallel to regulate distinct, as well as shared, direct downstream gene targets.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)683-695
Number of pages13
JournalDevelopmental cell
Volume11
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2006

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Molecular Biology
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • Developmental Biology
  • Cell Biology

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