The Wnt/Wg family encodes secreted glycoproteins implicated in cell growth regulation, cell fate
determination, organogenesis and oncogenesis. Inferred from genetic analysis of wingless (wg) signaling in
Drosophila, in mammalian cells, Wnts signal through the Frizzled family of receptors, to Dishevelled. Dishevelled
down regulates glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3 ) activity. This results in the stabilization and accumulation of
cytosolic -catenin, a GSK-3 substrate, which when phosphorylated by GSK-3, is targeted for ubiquitin-mediated
proteolysis. -catenin then translocates to the nucleus, where in complexes with members of the Tcf/LEF family of
transcription regulators, activates transcription of Tcf-responsive genes. This Tcf-reporter plasmid, along with
FOPFLASH (Cat. # 21-169) enables quantitation of Wnt/Wg signaling in cells transfected with these constructs.
