Abstract: Series 102, Lecture 5
The Harvey Lectures Series 102 (2006—2007)
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Lecture #5: Thursday, March 15, 2007 — Time and Location
Cilia and Hedgehog Signaling
Kathryn V Anderson, PhD
Program Chair, Developmental Biology
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
New York, New York
Although the core of the Hedgehog signaling pathway is conserved between Drosophila and vertebrates, recent studies have identified at least a dozen proteins that are required for Hedgehog signaling in the mouse, but not in Drosophila. Among these vertebrate-specific components of the pathway are the Intraflagellar Transport (IFT) proteins, which are known to be required for the assembly and maintenance of cilia. Mouse mutants that lack any one of several different IFT proteins fail to specify ventral neural cell types, which depend on Sonic hedgehog signaling. Genetic analysis shows that the IFT proteins are required for cells to respond to Hedgehog and that they control the activity of the Gli transcription factors that mediate Hedgehog responses. The data indicate that IFT proteins are required for Hedgehog signaling because Hedgehog signal transduction components are localized to non-motile primary cilia.