Type: | Family | Name: | Protein dispatched |
Description: | The Hedgehog (Hh) signalling pathway plays critical roles in development. Hh signalling is triggered by binding of the secreted Hh ligand to its membrane receptor, Patched (Ptch), setting in motion signal transduction events, and leads to the specific transcriptional output of the Hh pathway [, ]. The Hh ligand is generated from a precursor protein, which is translocated into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), undergoes signal sequence cleavage and then is modified covalently, including the N-terminal palmitate modification and the C-terminal cholesterol modification. This generates an N-terminal fragment and a C-terminal fragment, which are both essential for normal Hh signalling []. This entry represents protein dispatched (Disp). Disp shares protein sequence similarity with Ptch and is essential for long-range Hh signalling. Disp belongs to the RND family of transporters []. It contains a sterol-sensing domain (SSD), a sequence of 5 consecutive membrane-spanning helices found in several membrane proteins involved in cholesterol homeostasis []. Disp is specifically required for secretion of cholesterol-modified Hh ligands from signalling cells [, , ]. | Short Name: | Dispatched |