ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CHICKEN BETA-CATENIN

beta-catenin interacts with a number of proteins in different importan t biological processes, including cell adhesion through cadherins, act in organization through fascin, body axis determination through Wnt si gnaling, tumor suppression through APC, and transcriptional activation through LEF-1. To examine its function in chicken embryogenesis, we i solated the chicken homolog of beta-catenin from a chicken embryo cDNA library. The sequence is highly conserved at the amino acid level bet ween chicken, mouse (99%), human (99%) and Xenopus (97%). In-situ hybr idization and immunostaining showed that in the developing limb, it is specifically expressed in the apical ectodermal ridge, suggesting a r ole in epithelial-mesenchymal interactions. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.