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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Apr 17.
Published in final edited form as: Dev Cell. 2012 Apr 17;22(4):695–702. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2012.03.013

Figure 1. Functionally conserved components of the Hippo tumor suppressor pathway.

Figure 1

The FERM domain proteins Merlin and Expanded/FMD6 have been proposed to function upstream of the core kinase signaling cassette together with the WW domain protein Kibra. The sterile 20 kinase Tao-1 directly phosphorylates Hippo and MST kinases in vitro and promotes pathway activation in vivo. The scaffolding proteins Salvador/WW45 and Mats/Mob promote Hippo/MST and Warts/Lats kinase activity, respectively. Hippo/MST phosphorylates Warts/Lats, which in turn phosphorylates Yorkie/Yap to promote 14-3-3 binding. 14-3-3 sequesters Yorkie/Yap in the cytoplasm, preventing the transcription of target genes that promote tissue growth. In addition, Fat signaling (not shown) has been shown to regulate Warts stability and Yorkie activation in parallel to Hippo.