Research objectives

Wnt signaling and cancer

TCF factors, mediators of Wnt signaling in development and cancer

In 1991, we reported the cloning of a T cell specific transcription factor that we termed TCF1 (1). Related genes exist in genomes throughout the animal kingdom.We have shown in frogs (4), flies (7) and worms (11) that the TCF proteins constitute the effectors of the canonical Wnt pathway. Upon Wnt signaling, ß-catenin binds and activates nuclear TCFs by providing a trans-activation domain. For these studies, we designed the widely used pTOPFLASH Wnt reporters. In the absence of Wnt signaling, we found that Tcf factors associate with proteins of the Groucho family of transcriptional repressors to repress target gene transcription (9).

The tumor suppressor protein APC forms the core of a cytoplasmic complex which binds ß-catenin and targets it for degradation in the proteasome. In APC-deficient colon carcinoma cells, we demonstrated that ß-catenin accumulates and is constitutively complexed with the TCF family member TCF4 (5). In APC-positive colon carcinomas and melanomas, dominant mutations in ß-catenin render it indestructable, providing an alternative mechanism to inappropriately activate transcription of TCF target genes (6).

In mammals, physiological Wnt signaling is intimately involved with the biology of adult stem cells and self-renewing tissues (18,19). We were the first to link Wnt signaling with adult stem cell biology, when we showed that TCF4 gene disruption leads to the abolition of crypts of the small intestine (8), and that TCF1 gene knockout severely disables the stem cell compartment of the thymus (2). The Tcf4-driven target gene program in colorectal cancer cells is the malignant counterpart of a physiological gene program in selfrenewing crypts (13, 14, 21).

Amongst the Wnt target genes, the Lgr5 gene is unique in that it marks small cycling cells at crypt bottoms. These cells represent the epithelial stem cells of the small intestine and colon (23), the hair follicle (24) and the stomach (28). They also represent the cells-of-origin of adenomas in the gut (25). A culture system has been set up which allows the outgrowth of a single Lgr5 cell into a long-lived, self-renewing mini-gut (27) and mini-stomach (28). The Wnt target gene encoding the transcription factor Achaete scute-like 2 controls the fate of the intestinal stem cell (26).

Wnt signaling intimately interacts with the BMP and Notch cascades to drive proliferation and inhibit differentiation in intestinal crypts and adenomas (17, 20).

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Movie: The gut, a clonal conveyer belt: The animation shows how stem cells fuel the self-renewing epithelium and how APC-mutant stem cells initiate cancer.