A transphyletic study of metazoan β-catenin protein complexes

Beta-catenin is essential for diverse biological processes, such as body axis determination and cell differentiation, during metazoan embryonic development. Beta-catenin is thought to exert such functions through complexes formed with various proteins. Although β-catenin complex proteins have been identified in several bilaterians, little is known about the structural and functional properties of β-catenin complexes in early metazoan evolution. In the present study, we performed a comparative analysis of β-catenin sequences in nonbilaterian lineages that diverged early in metazoan evolution. We also carried out transphyletic function experiments with β-catenin from nonbilaterian metazoans using developing Xenopus embryos, including secondary axis induction in embryos and proteomic analysis of β-catenin protein complexes. Comparative functional analysis of nonbilaterian β-catenins demonstrated sequence characteristics important for β-catenin functions, and the deep origin and evolutionary conservation of the cadherin–catenin complex. Proteins that co-immunoprecipitated with β-catenin included several proteins conserved among metazoans. These data provide new insights into the conserved repertoire of β-catenin complexes.