Dev Biol 2018 Dec 01;444 Suppl 1:S144-S155. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2018.05.023.

AKT signaling displays multifaceted functions in neural crest development.

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AKT signaling is an essential intracellular pathway controlling cell homeostasis, cell proliferation and survival, as well as cell migration and differentiation in adults. Alterations impacting the AKT pathway are involved in many pathological conditions in human disease. Similarly, during development, multiple transmembrane molecules, such as FGF receptors, PDGF receptors or integrins, activate AKT to control embryonic cell proliferation, migration, differentiation, and also cell fate decisions. While many studies in mouse embryos have clearly implicated AKT signaling in the differentiation of several neural crest derivatives, information on AKT functions during the earliest steps of neural crest development had remained relatively scarce until recently. However, recent studies on known and novel regulators of AKT signaling demonstrate that this pathway plays critical roles throughout the development of neural crest progenitors. Non-mammalian models such as fish and frog embryos have been instrumental to our understanding of AKT functions in neural crest development, both in neural crest progenitors and in the neighboring tissues. This review combines current knowledge acquired from all these different vertebrate animal models to describe the various roles of AKT signaling related to neural crest development in vivo. We first describe the importance of AKT signaling in patterning the tissues involved in neural crest induction, namely the dorsal mesoderm and the ectoderm. We then focus on AKT signaling functions in neural crest migration and differentiation.

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Species referenced: Xenopus laevis
Genes referenced: adam19 akt1 cdh11 cdh3 cdh6 chrd ctnnb1 egf erbb2 erbb4 ets1 fgfr2 fgfr3 foxd3 foxo4 gdnf gsc gsk3a hes4 hoxb9 ift20 ilk inka1 itgb1 mapk1 mitf mixer msx1 msx2 mtor not otx2 pax3 pax7 pdgfa pdgfra pdk1 pfkfb4 plcg1 pten rac1 ret sia1 snai2 sox10 sox17a sox2 sox8 sox9 specc1l src stat3 tbxt tfap2a tfap2c tp53 twist1 tyr wnt1 yap1 zic1 zic2