Proteomic exploration of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway.

The Wnt/beta-catenin pathway, with its substantial role in development and disease processes, has been the subject of intensive studies for more than two decades. The multiplicity of protein components in the pathway, with their complicated interactions, phosphorylations, and subcellular localization events, presents itself as a great system for proteomic analysis. Recent advances in proteomic technologies have enabled protein identification and quantification in complex protein mixtures at a global scale, leading to new insights into the pathway. This review will discuss several of the new proteomic technologies, and how they have been applied to the interrogation of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway, with particular reference to the application of yeast two-hybrid analysis and mass spectrometry-based approaches.