Role of Sonic Hedgehog in Development

By Elizabeth Hackett

Submitted To The Faculty of The University of Arkansas at Little Rock In Partial Fulfillment Of The Requirements or Completion Of Developmental Biology 3400

December 13, 2012

Abstract Text The Hedgehog Family

The Hedgehog family of secreted proteins govern a wide variety of processes during embryonic development and adult tissue homeostasis. This family of paracrine factors are one of the most important groups of signaling molecules that regulate cell differentiation and organ formation during development, and they used by the embryo to induce particular cell types and to create boundaries between tissues (Gilbert 90). The hedgehog (hh) gene was discovered nearly thirty years ago as a segment polarity gene that regulate segmental polarity of the blastoderm and the specification of imaginal disc during metamorphosis in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster (Jiang and Hui 801). In Drosophila and other invertebrates, there is only one type of hedgehog gene. On the other hand, vertebrates have a family of genes that are homologous to the hh gene. Mammals have three genes with homology to the Drosophila hh gene, which can be categorized into the subgroups: the Desert Hedgehog (DHH), Indian Hedgehog (IHH), and Sonic Hedgehog (SHH). Embryogenesis is controlled by diverse signal transduction pathways. Through these signaling pathways, the same signals can trigger different types of cell differentiation responses in different embryonic cells, thereby orchestrating cell differentiation programs in the developing embryo. Hedgehog family is a family of paracrine factors Proteins must become complexed with a molecule of cholesterol in order to function. Hedgehog pathway: proteins activated by the binding of a Hedgehog protein to the patched receptor. When Hedgehog binds to Patched, the Patched proteins shape is altered such that is no longer inhibits Smoothened. Smoothened acts to release the Ci protein protein from the microtubules and to prevent its being cleaved. The intact Ci protein can now enter the nucleus, where it acts a transcriptional activator of the same genes it used to repress. The major Hedgehog family paracrine factor is Sonic Hedgehog. SHH has distinct functions in different tissues of the embryo

Sonic hedgehog is a morphogen, which is a molecule that diffuses to form a concentration gradient that differentially influences the cells of a developing embryo in a concentration dependent manner.

List of figures Fig 1. Hedgehog signal transduction pathway Fig 2

A positive feedback loop coordinates vertebrate limb development.

Patched Receptor (PTC) Smoothened (Smo) Hedgehog binding state (Hh +/-)

Literature Cited
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