An arrow for wingless to take-off

The Wnt family of secreted glycoproteins is involved in the regulation of d iverse developmental processes. The classical Wnt/beta -catenin pathway has been thoroughly investigated resulting in the identification of a plethora of components involved in the activation of beta -catenin target genes. Mo reover, two additional Wnt-triggered pathways have been identified. These v arious signalling cascades require at least one component that confers sign alling specificity. This function is fulfilled at least in part by the Wnt receptor Frizzled. The recent identification of a potential Frizzled co-rec eptor, an LDL-receptor-related-protein (LRP),((1-3)) sheds more light on Wn t-signal transduction specificity and promises more exciting revelations. B ioEssays 23:207-210, 2001. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.