Abstract

During Caenorhabditis elegans vulval development, a signal from the anchor cell stimulates the RTK/RAS/MAPK (receptor tyrosine kinase/RAS/mitogen-activated protein kinase) signaling pathway in the closest vulval precursor cell P6.p to induce the primary fate. A lateral signal from P6.p then activates the Notch signaling pathway in the neighboring cells P5.p and P7.p to prevent them from adopting the primary fate and to specify the secondary fate. The MAP kinase phosphatase LIP-1 mediates this lateral inhibition of the primary fate. LIN-12/NOTCH up-regulates lip-1 transcription in P5.p and P7.p where LIP-1 inactivates the MAP kinase to inhibit primary fate specification. LIP-1 thus links the two signaling pathways to generate a pattern.