Bulik DA et al. (2002) Biochim Biophys Acta "The Caenorhabditis elegans sqv genes and functions of proteoglycans in development."

Bulik DA, Robbins PW

[Biochim Biophys Acta, 2002]

In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the vulva is a simple tubular structure linking the gonads with the external cuticle. In this review we summarize knowledge of inter- and intracellular signaling during vulval development and of the genes required for vulval invagination. Mutants of one set of these genes, the sqv genes, have a normal number of vulval precursor cells (VPCs) with an unperturbed cell lineage but the invagination space, normally a tube, is either collapsed or absent. We review evidence that the sqv genes are involved in glycosaminoglycan synthesis and speculate on ways in which defective glycosaminoglycan formation might lead to