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Primer and interviews: Diverse connections between primary cilia and Hedgehog signaling
Author(s) -
Kiefer Julie C.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
developmental dynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.634
H-Index - 141
eISSN - 1097-0177
pISSN - 1058-8388
DOI - 10.1002/dvdy.22278
Subject(s) - cilium , biology , hedgehog , hedgehog signaling pathway , anatomy , microbiology and biotechnology , sonic hedgehog , evolutionary biology , neuroscience , signal transduction , genetics
On the surface, the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway and primary cilia make strange bedfellows. Hh is a dynamic regulator of a myriad of developmental processes, ranging from spinal cord and limb patterning to lung branching morphogenesis. By contrast, immotile primary cilia were long considered ancestral holdovers with no known function. Considering the disparate perceptions of these two phenomena, the relatively recent discovery that there is a symbiotic‐like relationship between Hh and cilia was unexpected. This primer covers the basics of primary cilia and Hh signaling, highlighting variations in ways they are connected across species, and also discusses the evolutionary implications of these findings. Roles of cilia in signal transduction are analyzed further in an interview with Søren T. Christensen, PhD, and Andrew S. Peterson, PhD, in the A Conversation With the Experts section. Developmental Dynamics 239:1255–1262, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.