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Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan

Dishevelled, an essential mediator of Wnt signaling, is shown to regulate vertebrate gastrulation movements by controlling cell polarity, but how cell polarization is regulated during gastrulation has remained unclear. Here, we show that Dishevelled accumulates in the apical region at cell–cell contacts in involuting mesodermal cells, and that Wnt11 stimulation induces the accumulation of Dishevelled at apical adherens junctions in Xenopus ectodermal explants. We also show that the accumulation of Dishevelled is suppressed by the depletion of the Wnt receptor Frizzeld7 with a morpholino antisense oligonucleotide, and Frizzled7 itself also accumulates at apical adherens junctions in response to Wnt11. These results indicate that Wnt11 stimulation induces the accumulation of Dishevelled via the accumulation of Frizzled7. Our subsequent analysis shows that the DIX domain of Dishevelled is necessary for its translocation and accumulation in response to Wnt11. Our results suggest that Wnt11-induced polarized accumulation of Frizzled7 and Dishevelled at adherens junctions underlies the formation and maintenance of apicobasal cell polarity.

^* Correspondence: E-mail: L50174{at}sakura.kudpc.kyoto-u.ac.jp