Richard Fehon, Ph.D.

Regulation of Epithelial Polarity and Proliferation During Development

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 examing the functional interactions between different genes that work together in a particular cellular or developmental process.

Selected Papers

Boggiano, J.C, Vanderzalm, P.J. and Fehon, R.G. (2011). Tao-1 Phosphorylates Hippo/MST kinases to Regulate the Hippo-Salvador-Warts Tumor Suppressor Pathway. Dev. Cell. 21, 888-895. PMCID: PMC3217187 (‘Featured Article’)

Oshima, K. and Fehon, R.G. (2011) Analysis of protein dynamics within the septate junction reveals a highly stable core protein complex that does not include the basolateral polarity protein Discs Large. J. Cell Sci. 124, 2861-71. PMCID: PMC3148133

Neisch, A.L. and Fehon, R.G. (2011). Ezrin, Radixin and Moesin: Key regulators of membrane-cortex interactions and signaling. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 23, 377-82. PMCID: PMC3148288

Nilton, A., Oshima, K., Zare, F., Byri, S., Nannmark, U., Nyberg, K.G., Fehon, R.G., and Uv, A.E. (2010) Crooked, Coiled and Crimpled are three Ly6-like proteins required for proper localization of septate junction components. Development, 137, 2427-2437. PMCID: PMC2889608.

Benseñor LB, Barlan K, Rice SE, Fehon RG, Gelfand VI. (2010). Microtubule-mediated transport of the tumor-suppressor protein Merlin and its mutants. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 107, 7311-6. PMCID: PMC2867680.

Neisch, A.L., Speck, O., Stronach, B., and Fehon, R.G. (2010). Rho1 regulates apoptosis via activation of the JNK signaling pathway at the plasma membrane. J. Cell Biol. 189, 311-23. PMCID: PMC2856900.

Hughes, SC, Formstecher, E., and Fehon RG. (2010). Sip1, the Drosophila orthologue of EBP50/NHERF1, functions with the sterile 20 family kinase Slik to regulate moesin activity. J. Cell Sci. 123, 1099-107. PMCID: PMC2844318.

Fehon, RG, McClatchey, AI, and Bretscher, A. (2010). Organizing the Cell Cortex: The role of ERM proteins. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 11, 276-287. PMCID: PMC2871950.

McClatchey, A.I. and Fehon, R.G. (2009). Merlin and the ERM proteins - regulators of receptor distribution and signaling at the cell cortex. Trends Cell Biol. 19, 198-206. PMCID: PMC2796113.

Hughes SC, Fehon RG. (2007). Understanding ERM proteins--the awesome power of genetics finally brought to bear. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 19, 51-6. PMCID: PMC2064571.

Li Q, Nance MR, Kulikauskas R, Nyberg K, Fehon R, Karplus PA, Bretscher A, and Tesmer J. (2007). Self-masking in an intact ERM-merlin protein: an active role for the central alpha-helical domain. J. Mol. Biol. 365, 1446-59. PMCID: PMC1796844.

Hughes, S. and Fehon, R.G. (2007). Phosphorylation and activity of the tumor-suppressor Merlin and the ERM protein Moesin are co-ordinately regulated by the SLIK kinase. J. Cell Biol. 175, 305-313. PMCID: PMC2064571.

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

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

Speck, O., Hughes, S.C., Noren, N.K., Kulikauskas, R.M., and Fehon, R.G. (2003). Moesin functions antagonistically to the Rho pathway to maintain epithelial integrity. Nature 421, 83-87.