Strabismus was originally identified as a Drosophila protein involved in planar cell polarity Tanya Wolff and Gerald M. Rubin (1998) "Strabismus, a novel gene that regulates tissue polarity and cell fate decisions in Drosophila" in Development Volume 125, pages 1149-1159. . Flies with mutated stranismus genes have altered development of omatidia in their eyes. Vertebrates have two Strabismus-related proteins, VANGL1 and VANGL2 (an alternate name for the Drosophila "Strabismus" protein is "Van Gogh").

The amino acid sequence and localization studies for Strabismus indicate that it is a membran protein. Prickle is another protein in the planar cell polarity signaling pathway. Prickle is recruited to the cell surface membrane by strabismusR. Bastock, H. Strutt and D. Strutt (2003) "Strabismus is asymmetrically localised and binds to Prickle and Dishevelled during Drosophila planar polarity patterning" in Development Volume 130, pages 3007-3014. . In cells of the developing Drosophila wing, Prickle and Strabismus are concentrated at the cell surface membrane on the most proximal side of cellsM. Fanto and H. McNeill (2004) "Planar polarity from flies to vertebrates" in Journal of Cell Science Volume 117, pages 527-533. .

Vertebrate cell movement

VANGL2 is involved in the migration of groups of cells during vertebrate embryogenesisRachel S. Darken, Adriane M. Scola, Andrew S. Rakeman, Gishnu Das, Marek Mlodzik and Paul A. Wilson (2002) "The planar polarity gene strabismus regulates convergent extension movements in Xenopus" in EMBO Journal Volume 21, pages 976-985. .

References

Cell signaling