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  • The EMBO Journal (2003) 22, 4409 - 4420
  • doi:10.1093/emboj/cdg424

Prickle and Strabismus form a functional complex to generate a correct axis during planar cell polarity signaling

Andreas Jenny1, Rachel S Darken2, Paul A Wilson3 and Marek Mlodzik1

  1. Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Brookdale Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, 1 Gustave L.Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, USA
  2. Present address: Weill Medical College, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, 1300 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021, USA
  3. Present address: Earth Institute, CSPO, 1 Thomas Circle, NW Suite 1075, Washington, DC 20005, USA

Correspondence to:

Marek Mlodzik, E-mail: marek.mlodzik@mssm.edu

Received 26 May 2003; Accepted 8 July 2003; Revised 7 July 2003

Frizzled (Fz) signaling regulates the establishment of planar cell polarity (PCP). The PCP genes prickle (pk) and strabismus (stbm) are thought to antagonize Fz signaling. We show that they act in the same cell, R4, adjacent to that in which the Fz/PCP pathway is required in the Drosophila eye. We demonstrate that Stbm and Pk interact physically and that Stbm recruits Pk to the cell membrane. Through this interaction, Pk affects Stbm membrane localization and can cause clustering of Stbm. Pk is also known to interact with Dsh and is thought to antagonize Dsh by affecting its membrane localization. Thus our data suggest that the Stbm/Pk complex modulates Fz/Dsh activity, resulting in a symmetry-breaking step during polarity signaling.

  • Keywords:

    • convergent extension,
    • frizzled,
    • planar cell polarity,
    • prickle,
    • strabismus