Wnt/β‐catenin signalling is widely implicated in embryogenesis, tissue homeostasis and tumorigenesis. The key event in Wnt signalling activation is β‐catenin accumulation, which is controlled by both its production and degradation. However, much more emphasis has been placed on the understanding of its degradation. Here, we show that the synthesis of β‐catenin protein, which requires a group of serine/arginine‐rich splicing factors (SRSF), also contributes to its tumorigenic activity. Overexpression of SRSF1 and SRSF9 promote β‐catenin accumulation via the recruitment of β‐catenin mRNA and by enhancing its translation in an mTOR‐dependent manner. We further demonstrate that, like SRSF1, SRSF9 is also an oncogene, and is frequently overexpressed in multiple types of human tumours. Finally, our results suggest that promoting degradation and blocking production of β‐catenin synergistically reduce β‐catenin levels under pathological conditions and that a combinational therapy could be a promising approach for the treatment of cancer patients.

HDAC6 (histone deacetylase 6) catalyses the deacetylation of non-histone substrates, and plays important roles in cell migration, protein degradation and other cellular processes.

Background: Neurotrophins elicit both acute and long-term modulation of synaptic transmission and plasticity. Previously, we demonstrated that the long-term synaptic modulation requires the endocytosis of neurotrophin-receptor complex, the activation of PI3K and Akt, and mTOR mediated protein synthesis. However, it is unclear whether the long-term synaptic modulation by neurotrophins depends on protein synthesis in pre- or post-synaptic cells. Results: Here we have developed an inducible protein translation blocker, in which the kinase domain of protein kinase R (PKR) is fused with bacterial gyrase B domain (GyrB-PKR), which could be dimerized upon treatment with a cell permeable drug, coumermycin. By genetically targeting GyrB-PKR to specific cell types, we show that NT-3 induced long-term synaptic modulation requires presynaptic, but not postsynaptic protein synthesis. Conclusions: Our results provide mechanistic insights into the cell-specific requirement for protein synthesis in the long-term synaptic modulation by neurotrophins. The GyrB-PKR system may be useful tool to study protein synthesis in a cell-specific manner.

β-Catenin is a bifunctional protein participating in both cell adhesion and canonical Wnt signaling. In cell adhesion, it bridges the transmembrane cadherin and the actin-binding protein α-catenin and is essential for adherens junction formation, whereas in canonical Wnt signaling, it shuttles between the cytosol and nucleus and functions as an essential transcriptional activator. Schmidtea mediterranea β-catenin-1 was identified as a determinant of antero-posterior polarity during body regeneration by mediating Wnt signaling. Here we show that S. mediterranea β-catenin-2 is specifically expressed in epithelial cells in the gut and pharynx, where it has a putative role in mediating cell adhesion. We show evidence that planarian β-catenin-1 and -2 have distinct biochemical properties. β-Catenin-1 can interact with the components of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway but not with α-catenin, whereas β-catenin-2 interacts with cell adhesion molecules, including E-cadherin and α-catenin, but not with Wnt signaling components. Consistent with their specific function, β-catenin-1 is a potent transcriptional activator, whereas β-catenin-2 has no transcriptional activity. Protein sequence alignment also indicates that the planarian β-catenin-1 and -2 retain distinct critical residues and motifs, which are in agreement with the differences in their biochemical properties. At last, phylogenetic analysis reveals a probable Platyhelminthes- specific structural and functional segregation from which the monofunctional β-catenins evolved. Our results thus identify the first two monofunctional β-catenins in metazoans.

Wnt/β-catenin signaling is fundamental in embryogenesis and tissue homeostasis in metazoans. Upon Wnt stimulation, cognate coreceptors LRP5 and LRP6 ([LRP5/6] low-density lipoprotein receptor-related proteins 5 and 6) are activated via phosphorylation at key residues. Although several kinases have been implicated, the LRP5/6 activation mechanism remains unclear. Here, we report that transmembrane protein 198 (TMEM198), a previously uncharacterized seven-transmembrane protein, is able to specifically activate LRP6 in transducing Wnt signaling. TMEM198 associates with LRP6 and recruits casein kinase family proteins, via the cytoplasmic domain, to phosphorylate key residues important for LRP6 activation. In mammalian cells, TMEM198 is required for Wnt signaling and casein kinase 1-induced LRP6 phosphorylation. During Xenopus embryogenesis, maternal and zygotic tmem198 mRNAs are widely distributed in the ectoderm and mesoderm. TMEM198 is required for Wnt-mediated neural crest formation, antero-posterior patterning, and particularly engrailed-2 expression in Xenopus embryos. Thus, our results identified TMEM198 as a membrane scaffold protein that promotes LRP6 phosphorylation and Wnt signaling activation.

The β-catenin-lymphoid enhancer factor (LEF) protein complex is the key mediator of canonical Wnt signaling and initiates target gene transcription upon ligand stimulation. In addition to β-catenin and LEF themselves, many other proteins have been identified as necessary cofactors. Here we report that the evolutionally conserved splicing factor and transcriptional co-regulator, SKIP/SNW/NcoA62, forms a ternary complex with LEF1 and HDAC1 and mediates the repression of target genes. Loss-of-function studies showed that SKIP is obligatory for Wnt signaling-induced target gene transactivation, suggesting an important role of SKIP in the canonical Wnt signaling. Consistent with its involvement in β-catenin signaling, the C-terminally truncated forms of SKIP are able to stabilize β-catenin and enhance Wnt signaling. In Xenopus embryos, both overexpression and knockdown of Skip lead to reduced neural crest induction, consistent with down-regulated Wnt signaling in both cases. Our results indicate that SKIP is a novel component of the β-catenin transcriptional complex.