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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/1998//183 $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 140, Number 1, , 1998 183-195

Article

Signaling and Adhesion Activities of Mammalian β-Catenin and Plakoglobin in Drosophila



Phoebe White*, Hermann Aberle{ddagger}, and Jean-Paul Vincent*

* Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge CB2 2QH, United Kingdom; and {ddagger} Max-Planck-Institut fuer Immunbiologie, 79108 Freiburg, Germany

The armadillo protein of Drosophila and its vertebrate homologues, β-catenin and plakoglobin, are implicated in cell adhesion and wnt signaling. Here, we examine the conservation of these two functions by assaying the activities of mammalian β-catenin and plakoglobin in Drosophila. We show that, in the female germ line, both mammalian β-catenin and plakoglobin complement an armadillo mutation. We also show that shotgun mutant germ cells (which lack Drosophila E-cadherin) have a phenotype identical to that of armadillo mutant germ cells. It therefore appears that armadillo's role in the germ line is solely in a complex with Drosophila E-cadherin (possibly an adhesion complex), and both β-catenin and plakoglobin can function in Drosophila cadherin complexes. In embryonic signaling assays, we find that plakoglobin has no detectable activity whereas β-catenin's activity is weak. Surprisingly, when overexpressed, either in embryos or in wing imaginal disks, both β-catenin and plakoglobin have dominant negative activity on signaling, an effect also obtained with COOH-terminally truncated armadillo. We suggest that the signaling complex, which has been shown by others to comprise armadillo and a member of the lymphocyte enhancer binding factor-1/T cell factor–family, may contain an additional factor that normally binds to the COOH-terminal region of armadillo.

Abbreviations used in this paper: DE-cadherin, Drosophila E-cadherin; LEF, lymphocyte enhancing binding factor; MBP, maltose-binding protein; TCF, T cell factor; XTCF, xenopus T cell factor.

Address all correspondence to Jean-Paul Vincent, Medical Research Council, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, United Kingdom. Tel.: (44) 181 959 3666 ext. 2004. Fax: (44) 181 913 8543. E-mail: JP.Vincent{at}nimr.mrc.ac.uk


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