Integrin Signaling Regulates YAP/TAZ to Control Skin Homeostasis

    January 2016 in “ Development ”
    Ahmed Elbediwy, Zoé I. Vincent‐Mistiaen, Bradley Spencer‐Dene, Richard Stone, Stefan Boeing, Stefanie K. Wculek, J. Cordero, Ee Hong Tan, Randall Ridgway, Valerie G. Brunton, Erik Sahai, Holger Gerhardt, Axel Behrens, Ilaria Malanchi, Owen J. Sansom, Barry J. Thompson
    The study demonstrated that YAP and TAZ proteins were crucial for skin homeostasis, particularly in the basal layer of the skin, where they were found in the nucleus and increased during wound healing. Deleting YAP and TAZ in the skin of adult mice resulted in slower cell proliferation, hair loss, and impaired wound regeneration. The nuclear localization of YAP/TAZ was regulated by Integrin-Src signaling, which was influenced by contact with the basal extracellular matrix. This mechanism was also observed in other squamous epithelia and squamous cell carcinomas. In contrast, columnar epithelia used a different mechanism involving Hippo signaling to keep YAP/TAZ in the cytoplasm. However, when columnar epithelial tumors lost their apical domain, YAP/TAZ became nuclear, making the tumors sensitive to the Src inhibitor Dasatinib.
    Discuss this study in the Community →