Research Summary

Our interests center on the molecular mechanisms by which signal transduction pathways are organized into specialized membrane domains. In addition to their known role in organizing receptors and downstream effectors into functional signaling complexes, such organized complexes function to integrate signaling activities from multiple pathways and to segregate simultaneous but distinct functions of a single pathway. We study this question in Drosophila because of the utility of this system for studying the functions of individual genes via mutagenesis, and for examining the functional interactions between different genes that work together in a particular cellular or developmental process.

Selected Publications

Hughes SC, and Fehon RG. Phosphorylation and activity of the tumor-suppressor Merlin and the ERM protein Moesin are coordinately regulated by the Slik kinase. J. Cell Biol. 2006 Oct 23;175(2):305-13. (PubMed)

Cho E, Feng Y, Rauskolb C, Maitra S, Fehon R, Irvine KD. Delineation of a Fat tumor suppressor pathway. Nat Genet. 2006 Oct;38(10):1142-50. (PubMed)

Fehon R. Cell biology: polarity bites. Nature. 2006 Aug 3;442(7102):519-20. (PubMed)

Maitra, S, Kulikauskas, R, Solari, H, and Fehon, R.G. Redundant roles for Merlin and Expanded in modulating signaling pathways that regulate proliferation. Curr. Biol. 2006 16: 702-709. (PubMed)

Genova JL, Fehon RG. Neuroglian, Gliotactin, and the Na+/K+ ATPase are essential for septatejunction function in Drosophila. J Cell Biol. 2003 Jun 9;161(5):979-89. Epub 2003 Jun 2. (PubMed)

Speck O, Hughes SC, Noren NK, Kulikauskas RM, Fehon RG. Moesin functions antagonistically to the Rho pathway to maintain epithelial integrity. Nature. 2003 Jan 2;421(6918):83-7. (PubMed)

Bretscher A, Edwards K, Fehon RG. ERM proteins and merlin: integrators at the cell cortex. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2002 Aug;3(8):586-99. Review. (PubMed)

Tepass U, Tanentzapf G, Ward R, Fehon R. Epithelial cell polarity and cell junctions in Drosophila. Annu Rev Genet. 2001;35:747-84. Review. (PubMed)