Noncanonical Wnt/PCP Signaling During Vertebrate Gastrulation

The branch of the Wnt pathway, related to planar cell polarity signaling in Drosophila , is fundamental not only to the establishment of tissue polarity but also to a variety of morphogenetic processes in vertebrates. The genetic pathway has been noted for its similarity as well as divergence of between vertebrates and Drosophila . This review focuses on issues related to the complexity of the output of the planar cell polarity pathway during gastrulation in zebrafish and Xenopus and, to a lesser extent, during gastrulation/neurulation in mice.