The atypical cadherin flamingo links frizzled and notch signaling in planar polarity establishment in the Drosophila eye

Gishnu Das, Jessica Reynolds-Kenneally, Marek Mlodzik

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

106 Scopus citations

Abstract

Planar cell polarity is established in the Drosophila eye through distinct fate specification of photoreceptors R3 and R4 by a two-tiered mechanism employing Fz and Notch signaling: Fz signaling specifies R3 and induces DI to activate Notch in R4. We show that the atypical cadherin Flamingo (Fmi) plays critical, but distinct, roles in both R3 and R4. Fmi is first enriched at equatorial cell borders of R3/R4, positively interacting with Fz/Dsh. Subsequently, Fmi is upregulated in R4 by Notch and functions to downregulate DI expression by antagonizing Fz signaling. This in turn amplifies and enforces the initial Fz-signaling bias in the R3/R4 pair. Our results reveal differences in the planar cell polarity genetic circuitry between the eye and the wing.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)655-666
Number of pages12
JournalDevelopmental Cell
Volume2
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002

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