Multicellular Organization Laboratory
During C. elegans development, most cells divide asymmetrically along anterior-posterior axis to produce daughter cells with distinct fates. Asymmetries of most such divisions are controlled by a Wnt signaling pathway, called Wnt/β-catenin asymmetry pathway.
We discovered that components of the Wnt pathway localize asymmetrically within a cell during this process.
In other organisms, Wnt signaling pathways are involved in various developmental processes and oncogenesis. They also involves in self-renewing divisions of various stem cells.
Recently, it has been shown that β-catenin is asymmetrically localized in mouse ES cells attached with Wnt beads during their self-renewing asymmetric divisions. (Habib et al. 2013）
We will elucidate the mechanism of asymmetric divisions to contribute for cancer and stem cell biology.
Asymmetric localization of signaling components at telophase
A movie of β-catenin:GFP localization at telophase
Mechanism for asymmetric division
For example, β-catenin localizes to the anterior cell cortex during the division, and after telophase when new nuclei are formed, it starts to localize to the posterior nucleus.
We have recently found that the Wnt pathway produce asymmetry of spindle structure that is required for the asymmetry of β-catenin nuclear localization.
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