Wnt Family

1. Wnt Family The Wnt protein family includes a large number of cysteine-rich glycoproteins. The Wnt proteins activate signal transduction cascades via three different pathways, the canonical Wnt pathway, the noncanonical planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway, and the noncanonical Wnt/Ca2+ pathway. Wnt comprises a diverse family of secreted lipid-modified signaling glycoproteins that are 350–400 amino acids in length. The type of lipid modification that occurs on these proteins is palmitoylation of cysteines in a conserved pattern of 23–24 cysteine residues. Palmitoylation is necessary because it initiates targeting of the Wnt protein to the plasma membrane for secretion and it allows the Wnt protein to bind its receptor due to the covalent attachment of fatty acids. Wnt proteins also undergo glycosylation, which attaches a carbohydrate in order to ensure proper secretion. In Wnt signaling, these proteins act as ligands to activate the different Wnt pathways via paracrine and autocrine routes. These proteins are highly conserved across species. They can be found in mice, humans, xenopus, zebrafish, drosophila and many others. https://www.creative-diagnostics.com/wnt-family.htm