New insight into Wnt signalling in animal development. A new paper from Robin Beaven in the Denholm lab provides new insight into Wnt signalling in animal development. Cells use molecular signals to talk to one another, and these conversations are important to co-ordinate animal development, for example to produce organs of the correct size and shape. It is not clear in some cases how these signals pass between cells. In this new paper we focussed on one of these signals, Wnt/Wingless, and its role in renal tubule development in Drosophila. The requirement for Wnt’s release has remained controversial since the finding that a non-released form produces largely normal flies. Here we show that fly Wnt needs to be released from producing cells and spread to surrounding cells to have full effect; when this is prevented, renal tubules develop with abnormal patterning and shape. Dr Robin Beaven Image This work extends our understanding about the functional modes by which Wnts shape animal development and has implications for the role of Wnts and other signals during the development of our own tissues and organs. Dr Barry Denholm Robin’s paper is published in eLife (eLife 2018;7:e35373) and can be found here: https://elifesciences.org/articles/35373 Dr Robin Beavens' research profile This article was published on 2022-10-17
