Hedgehog activates fused through phosphorylation to elicit a full spectrum of pathway responses

The Hedgehog signal transduction network

Hedgehog (Hh) proteins regulate the development of a wide range of metazoan embryonic and adult structures, and disruption of Hh signaling pathways results in various human diseases. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the signaling pathways regulated by Hh, consolidating data from a diverse array of organisms in a variety of scientific disciplines. Similar to the elucidation of many other signaling pathways, our knowledge of Hh signaling developed in a sequential manner centered on its earliest discoveries. Thus, our knowledge of Hh signaling has for the most part focused on elucidating the mechanism by which Hh regulates the Gli family of transcription factors, the so-called "canonical" Hh signaling pathway. However, in the past few years, numerous studies have shown that Hh proteins can also signal through Gli-independent mechanisms collectively referred to as "noncanonical" signaling pathways. Noncanonical Hh signaling is itself subdivided into two distinct signaling modules: (i) those not requiring Smoothened (Smo) and (ii) those downstream of Smo that do not require Gli transcription factors. Thus, Hh signaling is now proposed to occur through a variety of distinct context-dependent signaling modules that have the ability to crosstalk with one another to form an interacting, dynamic Hh signaling network.

Smoothened transduces Hedgehog signal by forming a complex with Evc/Evc2

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling plays pivotal roles in embryonic development and adult tissue homeostasis in species ranging from Drosophila to mammals. The Hh signal is transduced by Smoothened (Smo), a seven-transmembrane protein related to G protein coupled receptors. Despite a conserved mechanism by which Hh activates Smo in Drosophila and mammals, how mammalian Hh signal is transduced from Smo to the Gli transcription factors is poorly understood. Here, we provide evidence that two ciliary proteins, Evc and Evc2, the products of human disease genes responsible for the Ellis-van Creveld syndrome, act downstream of Smo to transduce the Hh signal. We found that loss of Evc/Evc2 does not affect Sonic Hedgehog-induced Smo phosphorylation and ciliary localization but impedes Hh pathway activation mediated by constitutively active forms of Smo. Evc/Evc2 are dispensable for the constitutive Gli activity in Sufu(-/-) cells, suggesting that Evc/Evc2 act upstream of Sufu to promote Gli activation. Furthermore, we demonstrated that Hh stimulates binding of Evc/Evc2 to Smo depending on phosphorylation of the Smo C-terminal intracellular tail and that the binding is abolished in Kif3a(-/-) cilium-deficient cells. We propose that Hh activates Smo by inducing its phosphorylation, which recruits Evc/Evc2 to activate Gli proteins by antagonizing Sufu in the primary cilia.

Distinct phosphorylations on kinesin costal-2 mediate differential hedgehog signaling strength

The graded Hedgehog (Hh) signal is transduced by the transmembrane Smoothened (Smo) proteins in both vertebrates and invertebrates. In Drosophila, associations between Smo and the Fused (Fu)/Costal-2 (Cos2)/Cubitus Interruptus (Ci) cytoplasmic complex lead to pathway activation, but it remains unclear how the cytoplasmic complex responds to and transduces different levels of Hh signaling. We show here that, within the Hh gradient field, low- and high-magnitude Smo activations control differentially the phosphorylation of Cos2 on two distinct serines. We also provide evidence that these phosphorylations depend on the Fu kinase activity and lead to a shift of Cos2 distribution from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane. Moreover, the distinct Cos2 phosphorylation states mediate differential Hh signaling magnitude, suggesting that phosphorylation and relocation of Cos2 to the plasma membrane facilitate high-level Hh signaling through the control of Ci nuclear translocation and transcriptional activity.

Mammalian homologues of Drosophila fused kinase

Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signaling pathway is implicated in various developmental and postnatal processes. Much of the current knowledge about the mechanisms of Shh signal transduction in vertebrates comes from the investigations of the respective pathway in fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In Drosophila, serine/threonine kinase fused is involved in all aspects of regulation of the Hh-dependent transcription factor cubitus interruptus possessing both catalytic and regulatory functions. Two proteins, Stk36 and Ulk3, share similarity with fu and have been suggested as mammalian fu homologues. However, in vivo data clarify that Stk36 is not required for embryonic development in mice and participates in Shh-independent genesis of motile cilia. Even if Stk36 is associated with any pathological or physiological aspect of postnatal Shh signaling in mammals, it has perhaps only regulatory functions since its catalytic activity seems to be lost during evolution. In contrast to Stk36, Ulk3 is an active kinase. In non-stimulated cells, Ulk3 catalytic activity is blocked, and it is involved in negative control of Gli proteins, mediators of Shh signaling. In response to Shh, Ulk3 positively regulates Gli proteins by directly phosphorylating them. Thus, Ulk3 is able to recapitulate both positive and negative roles of fu in vitro. However, Ulk3 functioning in vivo remains to be investigated.

A screen for X-linked mutations affecting Drosophila photoreceptor differentiation identifies Casein kinase 1α as an essential negative regulator of wingless signaling

The Wnt and Hedgehog signaling pathways are essential for normal development and are misregulated in cancer. The casein kinase family of serine/threonine kinases regulates both pathways at multiple levels. However, it has been difficult to determine whether individual members of this family have distinct functions in vivo, due to their overlapping substrate specificities. In Drosophila melanogaster, photoreceptor differentiation is induced by Hedgehog and inhibited by Wingless, providing a sensitive system in which to identify regulators of each pathway. We used a mosaic genetic screen in the Drosophila eye to identify mutations in genes on the X chromosome required for signal transduction. We recovered mutations affecting the transcriptional regulator CREB binding protein, the small GTPase dynamin, the cytoskeletal regulator Actin-related protein 2, and the protein kinase Casein kinase 1α. Consistent with its reported function in the β-Catenin degradation complex, Casein Kinase 1α mutant cells accumulate β-Catenin and ectopically induce Wingless target genes. In contrast to previous studies based on RNA interference, we could not detect any effect of the same Casein Kinase 1α mutation on Hedgehog signaling. We thus propose that Casein kinase 1α is essential to allow β-Catenin degradation and prevent inappropriate Wingless signaling, but its effects on the Hedgehog pathway are redundant with other Casein kinase 1 family members.

The Hedgehog-induced Smoothened conformational switch assembles a signaling complex that activates Fused by promoting its dimerization and phosphorylation

Hedgehog (Hh) transduces signal by regulating the subcellular localization and conformational state of the GPCR-like protein Smoothened (Smo) but how Smo relays the signal to cytoplasmic signaling components remains poorly understood. Here, we show that Hh-induced Smo conformational change recruits Costal2 (Cos2)/Fused (Fu) and promotes Fu kinase domain dimerization. We find that induced dimerization through the Fu kinase domain activates Fu by inducing multi-site phosphorylation of its activation loop (AL) and phospho-mimetic mutations of AL activate the Hh pathway. Interestingly, we observe that graded Hh signals progressively increase Fu kinase domain dimerization and AL phosphorylation, suggesting that Hh activates Fu in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, we find that activated Fu regulates Cubitus interruptus (Ci) by both promoting its transcriptional activator activity and inhibiting its proteolysis into a repressor form. We provide evidence that activated Fu exerts these regulations by interfering with the formation of Ci-Sufu and Ci-Cos2-kinase complexes that normally inhibit Ci activity and promote its processing. Taken together, our results suggest that Hh-induced Smo conformational change facilitates the assembly of active Smo-Cos2-Fu signaling complexes that promote Fu kinase domain dimerization, phosphorylation and activation, and that Fu regulates both the activator and repressor forms of Ci.