Deciphering the signaling crosstalk during neural stem cell fate determination

A deeper understanding of the developmental process in the early stage can largely help dissecting the underlying mechanism and possibly lead to the discovery of disease therapeutics. In this study, we first investigated the molecular mechanism of the atypical Wnt receptor, Ryk, in mouse cortical neurogenesis.

We found its interacting partner, Smek1/2 protein, is responsible for the nuclear translocation Ryk intracellular domain (Ryk-ICD) during neural differentiation. Smek1/2 deficiency negatively affected neurogenesis. Smek1/2 and Ryk-ICD regulate the downstream target gene expression dependently in the cell nucleus. ❧ After solved the myth of Ryk signaling mechanism, we started to investigate the crosstalk between Ryk signaling and Notch signaling during neural development.