The Informational Content of Gradients of Wnt Proteins

Abstract

This perspective tackles the issues facing developmental biologists and cell biologists regarding how the molecular mechanisms for specifying cell fate are defined. This Perspective focuses on members of the Wnt family. The author proposes that Wnt proteins may act as stabilizing signals for earlier inductive events in certain systems, for example, in Caenorhabditis elegans during the migration of two neurons and in Drosophila melanogaster during the patterning of the wing.