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Cell polarity

Heads or tails?

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 9, pages 94–95 (2008)Cite this article

Two reports now answer this century-old question. They show that β-catenin, a multifunctional protein that regulates various cellular processes (including proliferation, cell fate specification and differentiation) in both vertebrates and invertebrates specifies and maintains the anterioposterior (A/P) identity of flatworms during regeneration and homeostasis.

...the canonical Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway controls A/P tissue identity during homeostasis and regeneration in flatworms.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Gurley, K. A., Rink, J. C. & Sánchez Alvarado, A. β-catenin defines head versus tail identity during planarian regeneration and homeostasis. Science 6 Dec 2007 (doi:10.1126/science.1150029)

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  2. Petersen, C. P. and Reddien, P. W. Smed-β-catenin-1 is required for anteroposterior blastema polarity in planarian regeneration. Science 6 Dec 2007 (doi:10.1126/science.1149943)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

FURTHER READING

  1. Slack, J. M. W. Metaplasia and transdifferentiation: from pure biology to the clinic. Nature Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 8, 369–378 (2007)

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Authors
  1. Francesca Cesari
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Cesari, F. Heads or tails?. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 9, 94–95 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2337

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2337

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