The Caenorhabditis elegans Ror RTK CAM-1 inhibits EGL-20/Wnt signaling in cell migration

During Caenorhabditis elegans development, the HSN neurons and the right Q neuroblast and its descendants undergo long-range anteriorly directed migrations. Both of these migrations require EGL-20, a C. elegans Wnt homolog. Through a canonical Wnt signaling pathway, EGL-20/Wnt transcriptionally activates the Hox gene mab-5 in the left Q neuroblast and its descendants, causing the cells to migrate posteriorly. In this report, we show that CAM-1, a Ror receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) family member, inhibits EGL-20 signaling. Excess EGL-20, like loss of cam-1, caused the HSNs to migrate too far anteriorly. Excess CAM-1, like loss of egl-20, shifted the final positions of the HSNs posteriorly and caused the left Q neuroblast descendants to migrate anteriorly. The reversal in the migration of the left Q neuroblast and its descendants resulted from a failure to express mab-5, an egl-20 mutant phenotype. Our data suggest that CAM-1 negatively regulates EGL-20.