PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Zhili Hou
AU  - Qi Wu
AU  - Xin Sun
AU  - Huaiyong Chen
AU  - Yu Li
AU  - Yongchun Zhang
AU  - Munemasa Mori
AU  - Ying Yang
AU  - Ming Jiang
AU  - Jianwen Que
TI  - Wnt/Fgf crosstalk is required for the specification of tracheal basal progenitor cells
AID  - 10.1101/405159
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 405159
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/31/405159.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/31/405159.full
AB  - Basal progenitor cells are critical for the establishment and maintenance of the tracheal epithelium. However, it remains unclear how these progenitor cells are specified during foregut development. Here, we found that ablation of the Wnt chaperon protein Gpr177 (also known as Wntless) in the epithelium causes significant reduction in the numbers of basal progenitor cells accompanied by cartilage loss in Shh-Cre;Gpr177loxp/loxp mutants. Consistent with the association between cartilage and basal cell development, Nkx2.1+p63+ basal cells are co-present with cartilage nodules in Shh-Cre;Ctnnb1DM/loxp mutants which keep partial cell-cell adhesion but not the transcription regulation function of ß-catenin. More importantly, deletion of Ctnnb1 in the mesenchyme leads to the loss of basal cells and cartilage concomitant with the reduced transcript levels of Fgf10 in Dermo1-Cre;Ctnnb1loxp/loxp mutants. Furthermore, deletion of Fgf receptor 2 (Fgfr2) in the epithelium also leads to significantly reduced numbers of basal cells, supporting the importance of the Wnt/Fgf crosstalk in early tracheal development.