cells Review Wnt Signaling in Neural Crest Ontogenesis and Oncogenesis Yu Ji 1,2,3,*, Hongyan Hao 3,4, Kurt Reynolds 1,2,3 , Moira McMahon 2,5 and Chengji J. Zhou 1,2,3,* 1 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine & Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California at Davis, School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA;
[email protected] 2 Institute for Pediatric Regenerative Medicine, UC Davis School of Medicine and Shriners Hospitals for Children, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA;
[email protected] 3 Graduate Program of Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA;
[email protected] 4 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA 5 College of Letters & Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected] (Y.J.);
[email protected] (C.J.Z.); Tel.: +1-916-452-2268 (C.J.Z.) Received: 30 August 2019; Accepted: 25 September 2019; Published: 29 September 2019 Abstract: Neural crest (NC) cells are a temporary population of multipotent stem cells that generate a diverse array of cell types, including craniofacial bone and cartilage, smooth muscle cells, melanocytes, and peripheral neurons and glia during embryonic development. Defective neural crest development can cause severe and common structural birth defects, such as craniofacial anomalies and congenital heart disease. In the early vertebrate embryos, NC cells emerge from the dorsal edge of the neural tube during neurulation and then migrate extensively throughout the anterior-posterior body axis to generate numerous derivatives. Wnt signaling plays essential roles in embryonic development and cancer.