RESEARCH ARTICLE elifesciences.org Fringe proteins modulate Notch-ligand cis and trans interactions to specify signaling states Lauren LeBon1,2, Tom V Lee3, David Sprinzak4, Hamed Jafar-Nejad3, Michael B Elowitz1,2* 1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States; 2Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States; 3Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States; 4Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Abstract The Notch signaling pathway consists of multiple types of receptors and ligands, whose interactions can be tuned by Fringe glycosyltransferases. A major challenge is to determine how these components control the specificity and directionality of Notch signaling in developmental contexts. Here, we analyzed same-cell (cis) Notch-ligand interactions for Notch1, Dll1, and Jag1, and their dependence on Fringe protein expression in mammalian cells. We found that Dll1 and Jag1 can cis-inhibit Notch1, and Fringe proteins modulate these interactions in a way that parallels their effects on trans interactions. Fringe similarly modulated Notch-ligand cis interactions during Drosophila development. Based on these and previously identified interactions, we show how the design of the Notch signaling pathway leads to a restricted repertoire of signaling states that promote heterotypic signaling between distinct cell types, providing insight into the design principles of the Notch signaling system, and the specific developmental process ofDrosophila dorsal-ventral boundary formation. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.02950.001 *For correspondence:
[email protected] Competing interests: The authors declare that no Introduction competing interests exist. The Notch signaling pathway mediates communication between adjacent cells (Artavanis-Tsakonas et al., 1999).