Epsin potentiates Notchpathway activity in Drosophilaand C. elegans
Date
2004
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Company of Biologists 2004
Abstract
pathway are known to modulate the activity of different
signaling pathways. Epsins promote endocytosis and are
postulated to target specific proteins for regulated
endocytosis. Here, we present a functional link between the
Notch pathway and epsins. We identify the Drosophila
ortholog of epsin, liquid facets (lqf), as an inhibitor of
cardioblast development in a genetic screen for mutants
that affect heart development. We find that lqf inhibits
cardioblast development and promotes the development of
fusion-competent myoblasts, suggesting a model in which
lqf acts on or in fusion-competent myoblasts to prevent
their acquisition of the cardioblast fate. lqf and Notch
exhibit essentially identical heart phenotypes, and lqf
genetically interacts with the Notch pathway during
multiple Notch-dependent events in Drosophila. We
extended the link between the Notch pathway and epsin
function to C. elegans, where the C. elegans lqf ortholog acts
in the signaling cell to promote the glp-1/Notch pathway
activity during germline development. Our results suggest
that epsins play a specific, evolutionarily conserved role to
promote Notch signaling during animal development and
support the idea that they do so by targeting ligands of the
Notch pathway for endocytosis.
Description
Keywords
Biology
Citation
Xiaolin Tian, Dave Hansen, Tim Schedl and James B. Skeath "Epsin potentiates Notchpathway activity in Drosophilaand C. elegans" Development 131, 5807-5815