Dishevelled is a component of the frizzled signaling pathway in Drosophila

The tissue polarity genes in Drosophila are required to coordinate cell polarity within the plane of the epidermis. Evidence to date suggests that these genes may encode components of a novel signal transduction pathway. Three of the genes, frizzled (fz), dishevelled (dsh), and prickle (pk) share a similar tissue polarity phenotype, suggesting that they function together in a single process. dsh is also known to function as a mediator of wingless (wg) signaling in a variety of developmental patterning processes in the fly. In this study, we make use of a fz transgene and a hypomorphic fz allele as genetic tools in an attempt to order these genes in a genetic hierarchy. Our results argue that dsh encodes a dosage sensitive component required for fz function and that it likely acts downstream of fz in the generation of tissue polarity. Our findings suggest that dsh may have a general role in signal transduction, perhaps as a component of a receptor complex.