GATA transcription factors integrate Wnt signalling during heart development. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Cardiogenesis is inhibited by canonical Wnt/beta-catenin signalling and stimulated by non-canonical Wnt11/JNK signalling, but how these two signalling pathways crosstalk is currently unknown. Here, we show that Wnt/beta-catenin signalling restricts cardiogenesis via inhibition of GATA gene expression, as experimentally reinstating GATA function overrides beta-catenin-mediated inhibition and restores cardiogenesis. Furthermore, we show that GATA transcription factors in turn directly regulate Wnt11 gene expression, and that Wnt11 is required to a significant degree for mediating the cardiogenesis-promoting function of GATA transcription factors. These results demonstrate that GATA factors occupy a central position between canonical and non-canonical Wnt signalling in regulating heart muscle formation.

published proceedings

  • Development

author list (cited authors)

  • Afouda, B. A., Martin, J., Liu, F., Ciau-Uitz, A., Patient, R., & Hoppler, S.

citation count

  • 79

complete list of authors

  • Afouda, Boni A||Martin, Jennifer||Liu, Fei||Ciau-Uitz, Aldo||Patient, Roger||Hoppler, Stefan

publication date

  • October 2008