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Updated: Feb 18, 2026

Modeling Paracrine Noncanonical Wnt Signaling In Vitro
Published on: December 10, 2021
Animal multicellularity and polarity without Wnt signaling
Quentin Schenkelaars1,2, Marine Pratlong3,4, Laurent Kodjabachian5
1Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, IMBE UMR 7263, Avignon Université, Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie marine et continentale, Station Marine d'Endoume, Marseille, France. quentin.schenkelaars@unige.ch.
Abstract:
Acquisition of multicellularity is a central event in the evolution of Eukaryota. Strikingly, animal multicellularity coincides with the emergence of three intercellular communication pathways - Notch, TGF-β and Wnt - all considered as hallmarks of metazoan development. By investigating Oopsacas minuta and Aphrocallistes vastus, we show here that the emergence of a syncytium and plugged junctions in glass sponges coincides with the loss of essential components of the Wnt signaling (i.e. Wntless, Wnt ligands and Disheveled), whereas core components of the TGF-β and Notch modules appear unaffected. This suggests that Wnt signaling is not essential for cell differentiation, polarity and morphogenesis in glass sponges. Beyond providing a comparative study of key developmental toolkits, we define here the first case of a metazoan phylum that maintained a level of complexity similar to its relatives despite molecular degeneration of Wnt pathways.
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