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Phylogenetic tree of Wnt gene families. The Wnt genes are distinctly divided into 13 subfamilies shown as different colors. The eight BmWnt genes are marked with red dots.
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Wnt is a family of conserved glycoproteins that participate in a variety of important biological processes including embryo development, cell proliferation and differentiation, and tissue regeneration. The Wnt family is a metazoan novelty found in all animal phyla. Studies have revealed that the number of Wnt genes varies among species, presumably...
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... clusters of orthologues were divided into two branches, a vertebrate branch and an arthropod branch, except for the Wnt7 and Wnt11 clusters. In the Wnt7 and Wnt11 clusters, genes in Lepidoptera separate into a cluster, while the others are divided into a vertebrate branch and an arthropod branch (Figure 3), suggesting that Wnt7 and Wnt11 in Lepidoptera showed different evolutionary dynamics. The Wnt family is divided into 13 distinct subfamilies. ...
Context 2
... clusters of orthologues were divided into two branches, a vertebrate branch and an arthropod branch, except for the Wnt7 and Wnt11 clusters. In the Wnt7 and Wnt11 clusters, genes in Lepidoptera separate into a cluster, while the others are divided into a vertebrate branch and an arthropod branch (Figure 3), suggesting that Wnt7 and Wnt11 in Lepidoptera showed different evolutionary dynamics. ...
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... There are several possible reasons for this result. First, there are several Wnt homologs and receptors in the aphid genome, which implies the existence of compensatory effects (Ding et al., 2019). Second, gene expression may not have been completely blocked by RNAi, which is less efficient than using null mutants. ...
Wing dimorphism occurs in insects as a survival strategy to adapt to environmental changes. In response to environmental cues, mother aphids transmit signals to their offspring, and the offspring either emerge as winged adults or develop as wingless adults with degeneration of the wing primordia in the early instar stage. However, how the wing morph is determined in the early instar stage is still unclear. Here, we established a surgical sampling method to obtain precise wing primordium tissues for transcriptome analysis. We identified Wnt as a regulator of wing determination in the early second instar stage in the pea aphid. Inhibiting Wnt signaling via knockdown of Wnt2, Wnt11b, the Wnt receptor-encoding gene fz2 or the downstream targets vg and omb resulted in a decreased proportion of winged aphids. Activation of Wnt signaling via knockdown of miR-8, an inhibitor of the Wnt/Wg pathway, led to an increased proportion of winged aphids. Furthermore, the wing primordia of wingless nymphs underwent apoptosis in the early second instar, and cell death was activated by knockdown of fz2 under the wing-inducing condition. These results indicate that the developmental plasticity of aphid wings is modulated by the intrinsic Wnt pathway in response to environmental challenges.
... Planthoppers are one of the most destructive pests of rice in tropical and temperate regions of Asia (Horgan et al. 2017). At present, the Wnt gene family has been systematically identified in D. melanogaster, T. castaneum, Acyrthosiphon pisum, Anopheles gambiae, Apis mellifera, and Bombyx mori (Dearden et al. 2006, Bolognesi et al. 2008a, Murat et al. 2010, Shigenobu et al. 2010b, Ding et al. 2019. In rice planthoppers, Wnt1 was reported to be involved in the development and growth of wings in S. furcifera as in Drosophila . ...
... Our results showed the rice planthoppers have similar expression pattern compared to other insects. For example, expression of Wnts in B. mori also displayed the highest expression in the embryonic stage, and gradually decrease as the embryo develops to the hatching stage (Ding et al. 2019). Wnt signaling genes are involved in several key biological processes during embryonic development, such as cell polarity, body axis determination, and growth signal transmission (Wiese et al. 2018). ...
The Wnt gene family plays essential roles in regulating many developmental processes, including the maintenance of stem cells, cell division, and cell migration. The number of Wnt genes varies among species. Due to the diversity and importance of their functions, the Wnt gene family has gained extensive research interest in various animal species from invertebrates to vertebrates. However, knowledge of the Wnt gene family is limited in rice planthoppers. Three planthopper species, the white-backed planthopper (Sogatella furcifera Horvath), the small brown planthopper (Laodelphax striatellus Fallén) and the brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens Stål) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae), are devastating specialist pests of rice and cause serious damage to rice plants. To better study the evolution and function of the Wnt gene family in rice planthoppers, we identified 8 Wnt family genes in three rice planthoppers with both genomic and extensive transcriptomic resources available. We conducted a systematic analysis of the three kinds of rice planthoppers and analyzed the dynamic patterns of gene conservation, as well as Wnt gene loss and duplication. The expression profiles in different developmental stages of S. furcifera and different adult organs and tissues of L. striatellus provide preliminary functional implications for the Wnt genes in rice planthopper. This study presents the first genome-wide study of the Wnt gene family in rice planthoppers, and our findings provide insights into Wnt function and evolution in rice planthoppers.
... In the canonical pathway, an accumulation of stable β-catenin occurs, caused by the binding of WNT proteins to the transmembrane receptor Frizzled (FZD). In the non-canonical pathway (WNT/planar cell polarity (PCP), WNT proteins can bind to the FZD receptor, tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor (ROR) and receptor-like tyrosine kinase (Ryk), transmitting signals to Disheveled, leading to the activation of downstream target genes or releasing intracellular Ca 2+ , triggering Ca 2+ -calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CamKII) and protein kinase C (PKC) [3]. ...
The investigation of tumor microenvironment (TME) is essential to better characterize the complex cellular crosstalk and to identify important immunological phenotypes and biomarkers. The niche is a crucial contributor to neoplasm initiation, maintenance and progression. Therefore, a deeper analysis of tumor surroundings could improve cancer diagnosis, prognosis and assertive treatment. Thus, the WNT family exerts a critical action in tumorigenesis of different types of neoplasms due to dysregulations in the TME. WNT5A, an evolutionary WNT member, is involved in several cellular and physiopathological processes, in addition to tissue homeostasis. The WNT5A protein exerts paradoxical effects while acting as both an oncogene or tumor suppressor by regulating several non-canonical signaling pathways, and consequently interfering in cell growth, cytoskeletal remodeling, migration and invasiveness. This review focuses on a thorough characterization of the role of WNT5A in neoplastic transformation and progression, which may help to understand the prognostic potentiality of WNT5A and its features as a therapeutic target in several cancers. Additionally, we herein summarized novel findings on the mechanisms by which WNT5A might favor tumorigenesis or suppression of cancer progression and discussed the recently developed treatment strategies using WNT5A as a protagonist.
... A significant loss also occurred in insects, where the absence of Wnt2 and Wnt4 ligands in all the representatives is observed. Interestingly, an ortholog of wnt16 is present in the apid and absent in the other eight insects included in the analysis (Dearden et al., 2006;Bolognesi et al., 2008a;Murat et al., 2010;Shigenobu et al., 2010;Yin et al., 2015;Ding et al., 2019;Holzem et al., 2019;Panfilio et al., 2019;Vosburg et al., 2020). More losses are found in other lineages. ...
... Updated repertoire and phylogenetic relationship of Wnt ligands among panarthropods. Insects are shown in purple rectangles (Dearden et al., 2006;Bolognesi et al., 2008a;Murat et al., 2010;Shigenobu et al., 2010;Yin et al., 2015;Ding et al., 2019;Holzem et al., 2019;Panfilio et al., 2019;Vosburg et al., 2020), crustaceans in pale blue (Janssen et al., 2010;Constantinou et al., 2016;Jaramillo et al., 2016;Kao et al., 2016;Du et al., 2018), myriapods in green (Janssen et al., 2010;Hayden and Arthur, 2014;Janssen and Posnien, 2014), chelicerates in yellow (Janssen et al., 2010;Pace et al., 2014;Harper et al., 2021;Janssen et al., 2021;Janssen and Eriksson, 2022), onychophoran in brown (Hogvall et al., 2014) and tardigrades in red (Chavarria et al., 2021). An asterisk in the name indicates more organisms having the same repertoire. ...
Wnt signaling pathways are recognized for having major roles in tissue patterning and cell proliferation. In the last years, remarkable progress has been made in elucidating the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie sequential segmentation and axial elongation in various arthropods, and the canonical Wnt pathway has emerged as an essential factor in these processes. Here we review, with a comparative perspective, the current evidence concerning the participation of this pathway during posterior growth, its degree of conservation among the different subphyla within Arthropoda and its relationship with the rest of the gene regulatory network involved. Furthermore, we discuss how this signaling pathway could regulate segmentation to establish this repetitive pattern and, at the same time, probably modulate different cellular processes precisely coupled to axial elongation. Based on the information collected, we suggest that this pathway plays an organizing role in the formation of the body segments through the regulation of the dynamic expression of segmentation genes, via controlling the caudal gene, at the posterior region of the embryo/larva, that is necessary for the correct sequential formation of body segments in most arthropods and possibly in their common segmented ancestor. On the other hand, there is insufficient evidence to link this pathway to axial elongation by controlling its main cellular processes, such as convergent extension and cell proliferation. However, conclusions are premature until more studies incorporating diverse arthropods are carried out.
... melanogaster, Tribolium castaneum, and Bombyx mori (Bolognesi et al., 2008;Ding et al., 2019;Llimargas & Lawrence, 2001). Particularly, their expression patterns are mainly examined during embryogenesis, and little is known about their functions other than Wingless (Wnt1), which operates in segment polarity. ...
... A Pfam search against gene sequences predicted from the genomes using the HMMER v3.3.2 program was used to identify sequences that contained the Wnt domain. Also, Wnt genes in the beetle genomes were identified by TBLASTN searches using TBtools (Chen et al., 2020) with known insect Wnt protein sequences including the aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, the mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, the honey bee, Apis mellifera, the silkworm, B. mori, the fruit fly, D. melanogaster and the flour beetle, T. castaneum (Bolognesi et al., 2008;Ding et al., 2019;Nusse, 2001;Shigenobu et al., 2010), and by FGENESH + analysis (http://linux1.softberry. ...
... pisum, A. gambiae, A. mellifera, B. mori, D. melanogaster, and T. castaneum (Bolognesi et al., 2008;Ding et al., 2019;Nusse, 2001;Shigenobu et al., 2010), and other metazoans (Bai et al., 2020;Riddiford & Olson, 2011;Somorjai et al., 2018), Wnt gene repertoire in insects is much more diverse. ...
The Wnt gene family is involved in a wide range of developmental processes. Despite its significance, the evolution and function of Wnt genes remain largely unclear. Here, an exhaustive survey of Wnt genes was conducted in Tenebrio molitor and 17 other beetle genomes. A total of 146 Wnt genes were identified, creating a comprehensive coleopteran Wnt gene catalog. Comparative genomics indicates that dynamic evolutionary patterns of Wnt gene loss and duplication occurred in Coleoptera, leading to the diverse Wnt gene repertoire in various beetles. A striking loss of particular Wnt gene subfamilies occurs in Coleoptera. Remarkably, Wnt gene duplication was discovered for the first time in insects. Further analysis of Wnt gene expression in T. molitor indicates that each Wnt gene, including the duplicated ones, has a unique spatial or temporal expression pattern. The current study provides valuable insight into the evolution and functional validation of Wnt genes in Coleoptera. 146 Wnt genes are identified in the genomes of the yellow mealworm and 17 other beetles. Genome‐wide analysis leads to the discovery of Wnt gene duplication in Coleoptera. Coleopteran Wnts show dynamic evolutionary patterns of gene loss and duplication. Expression profiles of Wnt genes are characterized in the yellow mealworm. 146 Wnt genes are identified in the genomes of the yellow mealworm and 17 other beetles. Genome‐wide analysis leads to the discovery of Wnt gene duplication in Coleoptera. Coleopteran Wnts show dynamic evolutionary patterns of gene loss and duplication. Expression profiles of Wnt genes are characterized in the yellow mealworm. Wnt genes were identified in genomes of Tenebrio molitor and 17 other beetles. The evolutionary patterns of Wnt gene loss and duplication were analyzed across these species. Wnt genes show dynamic expression patterns at different life stages and in various tissues in T. molitor.
... [16] The two non-canonical signal pathways cannot be completely separated from one another. Although both pathways have been extensively studied in Drosophila and Xenopus, little is known about the function of these pathways in mammals [27]. It is known that the Wnt/PCP pathway participates in the control of cell polarity and cell movement during gastrulation. ...
Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the head and neck region accounts for 3% of all tumors worldwide. The incidence is higher in men, with most carcinomas found in the oral cavity. At the point of initial diagnosis, distant metastases are rare. The Wnt signaling pathway is critically involved in cell development and stemness and has been associated with SCC. Understanding precisely how Wnt signaling regulates SCC progression and how it can, therefore, be modulated for the therapeutic benefit has enormous potential in the treatment of head and neck SCC. In this review, we will describe the underlying mechanisms of Wnt signaling and outline how Wnt signaling controls cellular processes both in homeostasis and in the development and progression of SCC.
Level of evidence: Not gradable.
... microsynteny), and with chromosomal fissions/fusions and paracentric inversions reshaping the karyotype and chromosome architecture within these species orders [5,6,[18][19][20]. Isolated efforts have attempted to clarify the origin of the gene content of the Lepidoptera and Diptera heterochromosomes Z and X, respectively [21], and to examine the dynamics of change in gene configuration of a limited number of genomic regions, including the clusters of developmental genes Hox and Wnt [5,[22][23][24], the Osiris multigene family [25], and 15 random regions representing approximately 2% of the genome of two noctuid moths [18]. Therefore, no effort has been performed so far to (i) comprehensively investigate the relationship between the chromosomes between the Lepidoptera and the Diptera, (ii) determine the extent to which gene order randomization has taken place between the species orders, and (iii) reconstruct, even partially, the chromosome gene organization in their ancestor. ...
How chromosome gene organization and gene content evolve among distantly related and structurally malleable genomes remains unresolved. This is particularly the case when considering different insect orders. We have compared the highly contiguous genome assemblies of the lepidopteran Danaus plexippus and the dipteran Drosophila melanogaster, which shared a common ancestor around 290 Ma. The gene content of 23 out of 30 D. plexippus chromosomes was significantly associated with one or two of the six chromosomal elements of the Drosophila genome, denoting common ancestry. Despite the phylogenetic distance, 9.6% of the 1-to-1 orthologues still reside within the same ancestral genome neighbourhood. Furthermore, the comparison D. plexippus–Bombyx mori indicated that the rates of chromosome repatterning are lower in Lepidoptera than in Diptera, although still within the same order of magnitude. Concordantly, 14 developmental gene clusters showed a higher tendency to retain full or partial clustering in D. plexippus, further supporting that the physical association between the SuperHox and NK clusters existed in the ancestral bilaterian. Our results illuminate the scope and limits of the evolution of the gene organization and content of the ancestral chromosomes to the Lepidoptera and Diptera while helping reconstruct portions of the genome in their most recent common ancestor.
... In 3T3-L1 preadipocytes, Wnt4 and Wnt5A positively regulated adipogenesis at the initial stage of the differentiation process by activating PKC and calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II 17 . So far, the Wnt family has been extensively studied in some species, e.g., Drosophila melanogaster, Tribolium castaneum, Acyrthosiphon pisum, Anopheles gambiae, and Apis mellifera [18][19][20][21][22] . Spatiotemporal expression profile revealed that some Wnts might participate in early embryonic development as well as in adult organ/ tissue morphogenesis and homeostasis, whereas others may be involved in coping with challenging intertidal environments 20 . ...
The Wnt family features conserved glycoproteins that play roles in tissue regeneration, animal development and cell proliferation and differentiation. For its functional diversity and importance, this family has been studied in several species, but not in the Bovinae. Herein we identified 19 Wnt genes in cattle, and seven other species of Bovinae, and described their corresponding protein properties. Phylogenetic analysis clustered the 149 Wnt proteins in Bovinae, and 38 Wnt proteins from the human and mouse into 12 major clades. Wnt genes from the same subfamilies shared similar protein motif compositions and exon–intron patterns. Chromosomal distribution and collinearity analysis revealed that they were conservative in cattle and five species of Bovinae. RNA-seq data analysis indicated that Wnt genes exhibited tissue-specific expression in cattle. qPCR analysis revealed a unique expression pattern of each gene during bovine adipocytes differentiation. Finally, the comprehensive analysis indicated that Wnt2B may regulate adipose differentiation by activating FZD5 , which is worthy of further study. Our study presents the first genome-wide study of the Wnt gene family in Bovinae, and lays the foundation for further functional characterization of this family in bovine adipocytes differentiation.
... The most parsimonious explanation is thus that the role of Wnt8 in Parasteatoda represents an apomorphy for this spider species, or possibly Entelegynae as a whole, but not for spiders or chelicerates in general; note that Wnt8 is not expressed in the SAZ in the harvestman Phalangium either. Similarly, the posterior expression of Wnt8 in Tribolium may represent a synapomorphy of Tribolium or beetles in general because Wnt8 is missing or not expressed in the SAZ of other arthropods such as myriapods and crustaceans and other insects (e.g., [10,39]). This finding further strengthens the view that Wnt genes can be co-opted into existing gene regulatory networks to work in combination with or even replace the function of another Wnt gene. ...
... Like many Wnt genes, Wnt6 is highly under-investigated and so expression data are relatively scarce and the function of this gene has not been studied in many species. Interestingly, however, Wnt1 and Wnt6 appear to be ancient paralogs as revealed by phylogenetic analyses (e.g., [7,10,21,29,39], this study) and their conserved synteny in at least insects and crustaceans (data on Wnt gene synteny in other arthropods are not available), a lophotrochozoan species, the owl limpet Lottia [10,39], and some chordates [84]. In addition, Wnt1 and Wnt6 have overlapping expression patterns in many species (e.g., [4,35,39], this study). ...
... Like many Wnt genes, Wnt6 is highly under-investigated and so expression data are relatively scarce and the function of this gene has not been studied in many species. Interestingly, however, Wnt1 and Wnt6 appear to be ancient paralogs as revealed by phylogenetic analyses (e.g., [7,10,21,29,39], this study) and their conserved synteny in at least insects and crustaceans (data on Wnt gene synteny in other arthropods are not available), a lophotrochozoan species, the owl limpet Lottia [10,39], and some chordates [84]. In addition, Wnt1 and Wnt6 have overlapping expression patterns in many species (e.g., [4,35,39], this study). ...
The Wnt genes represent a large family of secreted glycoprotein ligands that date back to early animal evolution. Multiple duplication events generated a set of 13 Wnt families of which 12 are preserved in protostomes. Embryonic Wnt expression patterns (Wnt-patterning) are complex, representing the plentitude of functions these genes play during development. Here, we comprehensively investigated the embryonic expression patterns of Wnt genes from three species of spiders covering both main groups of true spiders, Haplogynae and Entelegynae, a mygalomorph species (tarantula), as well as a distantly related chelicerate outgroup species, the harvestman Phalangium opilio . All spiders possess the same ten classes of Wnt genes, but retained partially different sets of duplicated Wnt genes after whole genome duplication, some of which representing impressive examples of sub- and neo-functionalization. The harvestman, however, possesses a more complete set of 11 Wnt genes but with no duplicates. Our comprehensive data-analysis suggests a high degree of complexity and evolutionary flexibility of Wnt-patterning likely providing a firm network of mutational protection. We discuss the new data on Wnt gene expression in terms of their potential function in segmentation, posterior elongation, and appendage development and critically review previous research on these topics. We conclude that earlier research may have suffered from the absence of comprehensive gene expression data leading to partial misconceptions about the roles of Wnt genes in development and evolution.
... So far, the Wnt family has been extensively studied in some species (Drosophila melanogaster, Tribolium castaneum, Acyrthosiphon pisum, Anopheles gambiae, and Apis mellifera, etc. ) [5,11,15,39,40,43]. However, there was limited understanding on their expression patterns and regulatory mechanisms in bovine adipocytes differentiation. ...
Wnt is a family of conserved glycoproteins that functions in a variety of crucial biological processes including tissue regeneration, animal development, and cell proliferation and differentiation. For its functional diversity and importance, Wnt gene family has gained considerable research interest in a variety of species. However, comprehensive identification and analysis of Wnt genes in Bovinae is lacking. In this study, we identified the repertoire of Wnt genes in cattle and seven other species of Bovinae and obtained 19 Wnt genes. Protein properties of these Wnt genes were also described. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the 149 Wnt proteins in Bovinae, together with 38 Wnt proteins from human and mouse, were clustered into 12 major clades. The Wnt genes belonging to the same subfamilies shared similar protein motif compositions and exon-intron patterns. Chromosomal distribution and collinearity analysis of Wnt genes among cattle and five species of Bovinae revealed that this gene family was conservative in evolution. RNA-seq data analysis indicated that Wnt genes exhibited tissue-specific expression patterns in cattle. qPCR analysis of Wnt gene family showed that each gene had a unique expression pattern during bovine adipocytes differentiation. And the comprehensive analysis indicated that Wnt2B may regulate adipose differentiation through activation of FZD5, which is worthy of further study. Our study presents the first genome-wide study of Wnt gene family in Bovinae, and lay the foundation for further functional characterization of the Wnt family in bovine adipocytes differentiation.
