Genes

Gene

Public Gene Name: lin-17
Sequence Name: Y71F9B.5
WB ID: WBGene00003006
Description: lin-17 encodes one of four C. elegans Frizzled homologs, integral membrane proteins that contain an external cysteine rich domain (CRD) and seven transmembrane domains and that function in a wide variety of species as receptors for Wnt glycoprotein signaling molecules; LIN-17 activity is required for specifying the polarity of a number of asymmetric cell divisions that, in C. elegans, are essential for development of such structures as the vulva, somatic gonad, and tail; LIN-17 is also required for the proper polarity of neuronal migrations along the anterior-posterior axis; genetic interactions indicate that LIN-17 likely functions as a receptor for several different Wnt molecules, including LIN-44 and EGL-20, and that in specifying cell fates, the LIN-17-mediated signaling pathway often functions redundantly with other signaling pathways, including the RTK/Ras pathway; a LIN-17 translational reporter fusion shows membrane-associated expression in all of the Pn.pxx vulval precursor cells, in the descendants of V6 and T in males, in the P11.p and B cells, as well as their daughters, and granddaughters, and weakly in P10.p and its daughters; the reporter fusion does not reveal expression in P7.p, Z1, Z4, and T