Smoothened turnover regulated by Hedgehog signaling in Drosophila

During development, the processes of cell-cell signaling orchestrate growth and morphogenesis using both static features and moving parts. For example, expression domains of genes which set states of determination may be fixed in space for periods of time, but multiple signals move between the determined cells and intracellular movements of components of the signal transduction machines are key to information exchange. In the Drosophila wing imaginal disc, Hedgehog (Hh) protein produced in the posterior compartment moves to cells across the anterior/posterior compartment border to induce signal transduction and various intracellular responses. In this work, we investigated protein turnover and intracellular trafficking of components of Hh signal transduction in the wing disc and found that both are major features of Hh signaling.