We showed that the PEA3 transcriptional factor interacted with LKB1, a serine/threonine kinase, which is somatically mutated in lung cancer. This interaction occurred through the ETS domain of PEA3 and the kinase domain of LKB1. Mutation of LKB1 in lung cancer cells stabilized PEA3. Reintroduction of wild-type (WT) LKB1 into cells induced down-regulation of PEA3 and subsequently resulted in red...

Germline mutations of the Liver Kinase b1 (LKB1/STK11) tumor suppressor gene have been linked to Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome (PJS), an autosomal-dominant, cancer-prone disorder in which patients develop neoplasms in several organs, including the oviduct, ovary, and cervix. We have conditionally deleted Lkb1 in Müllerian duct mesenchyme-derived cells of the female reproductive tract and observed expa...

Pyramidal neurons in the cortex require the master kinase LKB1 for early axon specification. Courchet et al. now uncover a later role for LKB1 and its tango with the downstream effector kinase NUAK1 in controlling terminal axonal branching through influencing mitochondrial motility in axons.

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Epithelial stem cells divide asymmetrically, such that one daughter replenishes the stem cell pool and the other differentiates. We found that, in the epithelial follicle stem cell (FSC) lineage of the Drosophila ovary, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling functions specifically in the FSCs to promote the unique partially polarized state of the FSC, establish apical-basal polarity ...

Axon/dendrite differentiation is a critical step in neuronal development. In cultured hippocampal neurons, the accumulation of LKB1 and STRAD, two interacting proteins critical for establishing epithelial polarity, in an undifferentiated neurite correlates with its subsequent axon differentiation. Downregulation of either LKB1 or STRAD by siRNAs prevented axon differentiation, and overexpressio...

In mammals, a testis-specific isoform of the protein kinase LKB1 is required for spermiogenesis, but its exact function and specificity are not known. Human LKB1 rescues the functions of Drosophila Lkb1 essential for viability, but these males are sterile, revealing a new function for this genes in fly. We also identified a testis-specific transcript generated by an alternative promoter and tha...

Determining which neurite of a differentiating neuron is to become the axon is a crucial step in neuronal morphogenesis. Two groups (Barnes et al., 2007; Shelly et al., 2007) now report that axon specification in vivo is mediated by extracellular signals acting through the serine/threonine kinase LKB1.