Xing Dai
Biological Chemistry, School of Medicine
Phone: (949) 824-3101
Email: xdai@uci.edu
http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/biochem/faculty/dai.html
http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4552
Xing Dai
Skin epidermis and its appendages such as mammary glands and hair follicles are derived from the multipotent surface ectoderm and can continuously regenerate in adult life. Multipotent stem/progenitor cells face critical cell fate choices as well as decisions to self-renew, proliferate, or terminally differentiate. How are these choices made? What genes or genetic pathways govern or modulate these choices? What happens if these genes/pathways go awry? The long-term goal of Dr. Dai’s research is to use a multidisciplinary approach involving mouse genetics, developmental biology, cell biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology to address these important questions during embryogenesis and in adult tissues. They focus on pygopus genes – encoding putative nuclear components of canonical Wnt signaling that has been implicated in both normal and malignant development, and Ovol genes - downstream targets of canonical Wnt signaling and encoding zinc finger transcription factors. So far their studies uncover important functions of these genes in controlling the maintenance, proliferation, and differentiation of skin epithelial progenitor cells. As cancer arises from an imbalance between progenitor cells proliferation and differentiation, their studies shed light into molecular mechanisms underlying epithelial tumorigenesis.
Selected Publications:
Li, B., Mackay, D. R., Dai, Q., Li, T. W., Nair, M., Fallahi, M., Schonbaum, C. P., Fantes, J., Mahowald, A. P., Waterman, M. L., Fuchs, E., and Dai, X. (2002). The LEF1/beta -catenin complex activates movo1, a mouse homolog of Drosophila ovo required for epidermal appendage differentiation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99(9), 6064-9.
Li, B., Nair, M., Mackay, D. R., Bilanchone, V., Hu, M., Fallahi, M., Song, H., Dai, Q., Cohen, P. E., and Dai, X. (2005). Ovol1 regulates meiotic pachytene progression during spermatogenesis by repressing Id2 expression. Development 132(6), 1463-73.
Nair, M., Teng, A., Bilanchone, V., Agrawal, A., Li, B., and Dai, X. (2006). Ovol1 regulates the growth arrest of embryonic epidermal progenitor cells and represses c-myc transcription. J Cell Biol 173(2), 253-64.
Li, B., Rheaume, C., Teng, A., Bilanchone, V., Munguia, J. E., Hu, M., Jessen, S., Piccolo, S., Waterman, M. L., and Dai, X. (2007). Developmental phenotypes and reduced Wnt signaling in mice deficient for pygopus 2. Genesis 45(5), 318-25.
Nair, M., Bilanchone, V., Ortt, K., Sinha, S., and Dai, X. (2007). Ovol1 represses its own transcription by competing with transcription activator c-Myb and by recruiting histone deacetylase activity. Nucleic Acids Res 35(5), 1687-97.
