The Hippo kinase cascade regulates a contractile cell behavior and cell density in a close unicellular relative of animals.

ABSTRACT: The genomes of close unicellular relatives of animals encode orthologs of many genes that regulate animal development. However, little is known about the function of such genes in unicellular organisms or the evolutionary process by which these genes came to function in multicellular development. The Hippo pathway, which regulates cell proliferation and tissue size in animals, is present in some of the closest unicellular relatives of animals, including the amoeboid organism Capsaspora owczarzaki. We previously showed that the Capsaspora ortholog of the Hippo pathway nuclear effector Yorkie/YAP/TAZ (coYki) regulates actin dynamics and the three-dimensional morphology of Capsaspora cell aggregates, but is dispensable for cell proliferation control (Phillips et al., 2022

SUBMITTER: Phillips JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10402117 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature