Wnt signaling meets internal dissent
Abstract
In canonical Wnt signaling, β-catenin translocates to the cell nucleus, interacting with Tcf/Lef factors to activate transcription of Wnt target genes. In this issue of Genes & Development, Vacik and colleagues (pp. 1783–1795) report that a highly conserved sequence in intron 5 of Tcf7l2 conceals an internal promoter region that, when activated by Vax2, drives transcription of truncated Tcf7l2 mRNAs. The encoded Tcf7l2 protein binds to DNA, but not β-catenin, and therefore acts as a dominant-negative Wnt antagonist.
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Footnotes
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↵1 Correspondence.
E-mail egrove{at}bsd.uchicago.edu.
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Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.17594311.
- Copyright © 2011 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
