The making of Wnt: new insights into Wnt maturation, sorting and secretion

In this review, we look at the processes that occur 'behind the scenes' in Wnt signalling, within the Wnt-producing cells. The Wnt community has long been focused upon events that occur downstream of Wnt binding to its receptors, but the recent discovery that the maturation of the Wnt protein may have a profound effect on its signalling properties has excited great interest. In the last 2 years, several key regulators of Wnt production have been discovered, but our global understanding of this process remains relatively poor. Several models that reconcile former and recent observations of Wnt modification, sorting and secretion, and which highlight the potential of this emerging field, are presented here.