ß-Arrestin 2 Regulates Zebrafish Development Through the Hedgehog Signaling Pathway

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Abstract
β-arrestins are multifunctional proteins that act as scaffolds and transducers of intracellular signals from heptahelical transmembrane-spanning receptors (7TMR). Hedgehog (Hh) signaling, which uses the putative 7TMR, Smoothened, is established as a fundamental pathway in development, and unregulated Hh signaling is associated with certain malignancies. Here, we show that the functional knockdown of β-arrestin 2 in zebrafish embryos recapitulates the many phenotypes of Hh pathway mutants. Expression of wild-type β-arrestin 2, or constitutive activation of the Hh pathway downstream of Smoothened, rescues the phenotypes caused by β-arrestin 2 deficiency. These results suggest that a functional interaction between β-arrestin 2 and Smoothened may be critical to regulate Hh signaling in zebrafish development.