Journal of Undergraduate Research
Keywords
Wnt signaling, muscle development, disease, embryogenesis
College
Life Sciences
Department
Physiology and Developmental Biology
Abstract
My laboratory studies the role of Wnt signaling in regulating important events during embryogenesis. In order to better understand the function of this pathway, we study mouse mutants that lack the Porcupine (Porcn) gene which encodes a protein that is required for the secretion of all Wnt molecules. Prior to obtaining the MEG grant entitled: The role of Wnt signaling in normal muscle development and disease, we had demonstrated that mice lacking Porcn activity in the ventral limb ectoderm exhibit a thinning of the ventral limb ectoderm, loss of epidermal appendages and loss of muscle and tendons in the underlying mesoderm. The purpose of this grant was to characterize the basis of muscle and tendon loss in the Porcn; Msx2Cre mutants as well as to determine whether clonal mutations in the Porcn gene were the basis for ectodermal and muscular defects in individuals with Poland Syndrome. I will summarize the progress and accomplishment of each of the aims in the proposal.
Recommended Citation
Barrow, Jeffery
(2015)
"The role of Wnt signaling in normal muscle development and disease,"
Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2015:
Iss.
1, Article 253.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2015/iss1/253