Wnt proteins can direct planar cell polarity in vertebrate ectoderm

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Abstract

The coordinated orientation of cells across the tissue plane, known as planar cell polarity (PCP), is manifested by the segregation of core PCP proteins to different sides of the cell. Secreted Wnt ligands are involved in many PCP-dependent processes, yet whether they act as polarity cues has been controversial. We show that in Xenopus early ectoderm, the Prickle3/Vangl2 complex was polarized to anterior cell edges and this polarity was disrupted by several Wnt antagonists. In midgastrula embryos, Wnt5a, Wnt11, and Wnt11b, but not Wnt3a, acted across many cell diameters to orient Prickle3/Vangl2 complexes away from their sources regardless of their positions relative to the body axis. Planar polarity of endogenous Vangl2 in the neuroectoderm was similarly redirected by an ectopic Wnt source and disrupted after depletion of Wnt11b in the presumptive posterior region of the embryo. These observations provide evidence for the instructive role of Wnt ligands in vertebrate PCP.

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Chih-Wen Chu

Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Sergei Y Sokol

Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, United States

For correspondence
sergei.sokol@mssm.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3963-9202

Funding

National Institutes of Health (HD078874)

Sergei Y Sokol

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: This study was carried out in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. The protocol 04-1295 was approved by the institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.