Crosstalk of Hippo/YAP and Wnt/β-catenin pathways

Wnt/β-catenin and Hippo/YAP pathways are known to be important for development, growth, organogenesis, and maintenance of adult stem cells. In mammalian cells, Wnt signalling stabilises cytoplasmic β-catenin through several core molecules to promote β-catenin to enter the nucleus, thus delivers the growth -promoting signal. Hippo kinase cascade pathway promotes cytoplasmic localization of YAP/TAZ, which restricts cell proliferation and induces apoptosis. Deregula-tion of these two pathways could lead to tumorigenesis. Growing data indicate that these two pathways influence each other in a number of ways to properly regulate tissue growth and repair. Elucidating the regulatory mechanism and biological functions of Hippo/YAP and Wnt/β-catenin pathways might reveal potential targets for tumor therapeutic intervention. In this review, we discuss on the interactions between Wnt/β-catenin and Hippo/YAP pathways, and how these interactions contribute to tumorigenesis.