Back

aPKC-ζ III promotes trophoblast fusion by altering Par-3 interactions with Hippo Signaling Kinase LATS1

Shaha, S.; Duan, W. K.; Garcia Rivas, J.; Domingo, I. K.; Riddell, M.

2025-12-09 developmental biology
10.64898/2025.12.05.692666 bioRxiv
Show abstract

The first trimester of pregnancy is a critical developmental period for the placenta. In humans, the maternal-facing exchange surface is formed by a single giant multinucleate syncytium: the syncytiotrophoblast (ST). The ST arises from villous lineage commitment of trophoblast stem cells (TSC) and the differentiation and fusion of progenitor cytotrophoblasts (pCT) to form the multinucleate syncytium. The Hippo signaling co-transcription factor YAP1 promotes pCT maintenance and TSC stemness, however, how Hippo signaling is regulated remains unknown. We have identified a novel PRKCZ encoded aPKC isoform, aPKC-{zeta} III, that is highly expressed in pCT and ST. Here we establish that aPKC-{zeta} III promotes pCT fusion by regulating Hippo signaling. Specifically, aPKC-{zeta} III outcompetes the Hippo kinase LATS1 for scaffolding protein Par-3 binding, resulting in YAP1 inactivation and pCT fusion. Our findings identify a key modulator of Hippo signaling in human trophoblasts that is critical for first trimester ST differentiation.

Matching journals

The top 9 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.