Preprint Highlight: Polarized Disheveled dissolution and condensation drives embryonic axis specification in oocytes.

Abstract

Body axes establishment during animal embryogenesis often relies on the intrinsic asymmetry generated early on in the oocyte by the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. However, it's still unclear how the initial asymmetry arises. Here imaging experiments show that in starfish embryos, Disheveled (Dvl), an essential cytoplasmic transducer of Wnt signaling, becomes polarized at the vegetal pole via a dissolution-condensation mechanism coupled to meiotic progression. The authors further show that Dvl reformation is dependent on a maternally expressed Wnt signaling receptor Frizzled (Fzd1). This study identifies a novel link between the cell cycle and the body plan establishment and thus is relevant to a broad audience of developmental and evolutionary cell biologists.