During Caenorhabditis elegans vulval development, a signal from the anchor cell stimulates the RTK/RAS/MAPK (receptor tyrosine kinase/RAS/mitogen-activated protein kinase) signaling pathway in the closest vulval precursor cell P6.p to induce the primary fate. A lateral signal from P6.p then activates the Notch signaling pathway in the neighboring cells P5.p and P7.p to prevent them from adopting the primary fate and to specify the secondary fate. The MAP kinase phosphatase LIP-1 mediates this lateral inhibition of the primary fate. LIN-12/NOTCH up-regulates lip-1 transcription in P5.p and P7.p where LIP-1 inactivates the MAP kinase to inhibit primary fate specification. LIP-1 thus links the two signaling pathways to generate a pattern.
[Keywords: C. elegans; vulval development; EGFR; receptor protein tyrosine phosphatases; tumor suppressor] Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.
In the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite germline, spatially restricted mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling controls the meiotic cell cycle. First, the MAPK signal is necessary for the germ cells to progress through pachytene of meiotic prophase I. As the germ cells exit pachytene and enter diplotene/diakinesis, MAPK is inactivated and the developing oocytes arrest in diakinesis (G(2)/M arrest). During oocyte maturation, a signal from the sperm reactivates MAPK to promote M phase entry. Here, we show that the MAPK phosphatase LIP-1 dephosphorylates MAPK as germ cells exit pachytene in order to maintain MAPK in an inactive state during oocyte development. Germ cells lacking LIP-1 fail to arrest the cell cycle at the G(2)/M boundary, and they enter a mitotic cell cycle without fertilization. LIP-1 thus coordinates oocyte cell cycle progression and maturation with ovulation and fertilization.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.