Agrin is believed to be a factor used by motoneurons to direct acetylcholine receptor (AChR) clustering at the neuromuscular junction. However, exactly how agrin mediates this effect remains unclear. Here we demonstrate that the beta-catenin interacts with rapsyn, a molecule key for AChR clustering. Agrin stimulation increases the association of beta-catenin with surface AChRs. Suppression of b...

Metastatic melanoma is a leading cause of death from skin diseases, and is often associated with activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. We have examined the inhibitory effect of silymarin, a plant flavanoid from Silybum marianum, on cell migration of metastasis-specific human melanoma cell lines (A375 and Hs294t) and assessed whether Wnt/β-catenin signaling is the target of silymarin. U...

Alpha-catenin, an intracellular protein, associates with the COOH-terminal region of cadherin cell adhesion molecules through interactions with either beta-catenin or gamma-catenin (plakoglobin). The full activity of cadherins requires a linkage to the actin cytoskeleton mediated by catenins. We transfected alpha-catenin-deficient colon carcinoma cells with a series of alpha-catenin constructs ...

BACKGROUND The APC tumour suppressor functions in several cellular processes including the regulation of β-catenin in Wnt signalling and in cell adhesion and migration. FINDINGS In this study, we establish that in epithelial cells N-terminally phosphorylated β-catenin specifically localises to several subcellular sites including cell-cell contacts and the ends of cell protrusions. N-terminall...

Beta-catenin plays essential roles in both cell-cell adhesion and Wnt signal transduction, but what precisely controls beta-catenin targeting to cadherin adhesive complexes, or T-cell factor (TCF)-transcriptional complexes is less well understood. We show that during Wnt signaling, a form of beta-catenin is generated that binds TCF but not the cadherin cytoplasmic domain. The Wnt-stimulated, TC...

The cytoplasmic domain of classical cadherins is tightly associated with three proteins termed alpha-, beta- and gamma-catenin. These accessory proteins are of central importance for the adhesive properties of this class of cell adhesion molecules. In order to examine the molecular architecture of the cadherin-catenin complex in more detail we have expressed the catenins and the cytoplasmic dom...

signal transducer of canonical Wnt signaling and activates canonical Wnt target genes. b-catenin null mice die at E7.5. Since the conditional loss of b-catenin function in vivo does not distinguish between adhesion and signaling, it is unclear whether the knock-out phenotype is due to defects in signaling, adhesion or both. Our aim is to generate conditional alleles for functionally mutant b-ca...

signal transducer of canonical Wnt signaling and activates canonical Wnt target genes. b-catenin null mice die at E7.5. Since the conditional loss of b-catenin function in vivo does not distinguish between adhesion and signaling, it is unclear whether the knock-out phenotype is due to defects in signaling, adhesion or both. Our aim is to generate conditional alleles for functionally mutant b-ca...

The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays diverse roles in embryonic development and maintenance of organs and tissues in adults as well as in the pathogenesis of a range of diseases, including many types of carcinomas. β-catenin, the principal downstream effector of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, migrates to the nucleus and mediates the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. The aim of the prese...

We have recently unravelled a novel function for CD82 in E-cadherin-mediated cellular adhesion. CD82 inhibits β-catenin tyrosine phosphorylation and stabilizes E-cadherin-β-catenin complexes at the cell membrane. This function inhibits cancer cell dissociation from the primary cancer nest and limits metastasis. In this study, we focused on the eff...