Regulation of MAP Kinase signaling by the insulin-like growth factor pathway during C. elegans vulval development

Matthew Eroglu; W Brent Derry

doi:10.17912/micropub.biology.001557

Regulation of MAP Kinase signaling by the insulin-like growth factor pathway during C. elegans vulval development

MicroPubl Biol. 2025 Mar 21:2025:10.17912/micropub.biology.001557. doi: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001557. eCollection 2025.

Authors

Matthew Eroglu^{1

2}, W Brent Derry^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
² Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

Organ development depends on multiple signaling pathways working in concert to specify cell fates. Improper activity or inactivity of specific signaling pathways such as EGF-Ras-MAPK can lead to dedifferentiation and cancer. In C. elegans , gain of function mutations in Ras/ let-60 lead to ectopic development of multiple ventral vulva-like lesions resembling tumors. However, this phenotype depends on normal insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling. Here, we probe how factors downstream of the IGF receptor daf-2 modify Ras signaling. These investigations led us to identify regulators of cell fate such as the Zinc finger protein encoding gene mstr-1 ( F22D6.2 ), homologous to mammalian Zfand3 / 5 / 6 .