The protein-serine kinase Shaggy (Sgg) is the Drosophila homolog of mammalian glycogen synthase kinase-3 and has been genetically implicated in signal transduction pathways necessary for the establishment of patterning. Sgg is a putative component of the Wingless (Wg) pathway, and epistasis analyses suggest that Sgg function is repressed by Wg signaling. Here, we have investigated the biochemic...

Wheat germ (WG) is quite susceptible to deterioration due to the presence of lipase (LA) and lipoxygenase (LOX). Therefore it is indispensable to adopt a stabilization step to decrease the activity of LA and LOX while retaining a maximum level of nutrients. But over-drying can make foodstuffs more susceptible to autoxidation. So a stabilization protocol for inactivating LA and LOX of WG with a ...

Development of organ-specific size and shape demands tight coordination between tissue growth and cell-cell adhesion. Dynamic regulation of cell adhesion proteins thus plays an important role during organogenesis. In Drosophila, the homophilic cell adhesion protein DE-Cadherin (DE-Cad) regulates epithelial cell-cell adhesion at adherens junctions (AJs). Here, we show that along the proximodista...

Spatial and temporal control of Notch and Wingless (Wg) pathways during development is regulated at multiple levels. Here, we present an analysis of Phyllopod as a coordinated regulator of these two critical signal transduction pathways. Phyl specifically helps traffic Notch and Wg pathway components within early endocytic vesicles, thereby controlling the amount of processed signal available f...

Background: Enhanced activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) has been reported to have a pathogenic role in several diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disorders, and seems also to play a part in certain autoimmune diseases. Objective: To examine whether enhanced MMP activity may also have a role in the pathogenesis of Wegener’s granulomatosis (WG). Methods: In a study group of 15 p...

Precisely regulated signal transduction pathways are crucial for the regulation of developmental events and prevention of tumorigenesis. Both the Transforming Growth Factor beta (TGFbeta)/Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) and Wnt/Wingless (Wg) pathways play essential roles in organismal patterning and growth, and their deregulation can lead to cancers. We describe a mechanism of interaction betw...

The dachsous (ds) gene encodes a member of the cadherin family involved in the non-canonical Wnt signaling pathway that controls the establishment of planar cell polarity (PCP) in Drosophila. ds is the only known cadherin gene in Drosophila with a restricted spatial pattern of expression in imaginal discs from early stages of larval development. In the wing disc, ds is first expressed distally,...

Mounting evidence suggests that whole grain (WG) intake plays an important role in chronic disease prevention. However, numerous human studies have failed to produce clear-cut conclusions on this topic. Here, a combination of non-targeted and targeted metabolomics approaches, together with kinetic studies, was used to investigate biomarkers of WG wheat intake and further explore the diet-diseas...

Identification of Pygopus in Drosophila as a dedicated component of the Wg (fly homolog of mammalian Wnt) signaling cascade initiated many inquiries into the mechanism of its function. Surprisingly, the nearly exclusive role for Pygopus in Wg signal transduction in flies is not seen in mice, where Pygopus appears to have both Wnt-related and Wnt-independent functions. This review addresses the ...

Activity-dependent modifications in synapse structure play a key role in synaptic development and plasticity, but the signaling mechanisms involved are poorly understood. We demonstrate that glutamatergic Drosophila neuromuscular junctions undergo rapid changes in synaptic structure and function in response to patterned stimulation. These changes, which depend on transcription and translation, ...