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Review
Wnt signaling in limb organogenesis
Poongodi Geetha-Loganathan, Suresh Nimmagadda and Martin Scaal
volume 4 | issue 2
april/may/june 2008Pages: 109 - 115
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Secreted signaling molecules of the Wnt family have been found to play a central role in controlling embryonic development of a wide range of taxa from Hydra to humans. The most extensively studied Wnt signaling pathway is the canonical Wnt pathway, which controls gene expression by stabilizing β-catenin, and regulates a multitude of developmental processes. More recently, noncanonical Wnt pathways, which are β-catenin-independent, have been found to be important developmental regulators. Understanding the mechanisms of Wnt signaling is essential for the development of novel preventive and therapeutic approaches of human diseases. Limb development is a paradigm to study the principles of Wnt signaling in various developmental contexts. In the developing vertebrate limb, Wnt signaling has been shown to have important functions during limb bud initiation, limb outgrowth, early limb patterning, and later limb morphogenesis events. This review provides a brief overview on the diversity of Wnt-dependent signaling events during embryonic development of the vertebrate limb.
Authors
Poongodi Geetha-Loganathan
Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology; Department of Molecular Embryology; University of Freiburg; Freiburg, Germany
Suresh Nimmagadda
Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology; Department of Molecular Embryology; University of Freiburg; Freiburg, Germany
Martin Scaal
Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology; Department of Molecular Embryology; University of Freiburg; Freiburg, Germany