Axin, a negative regulator of the Wnt signaling pathway, forms a complex with GSK-3β and β-catenin and promotes GSK-3β-dependent phosphorylation of β-catenin

Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) mediates epidermal growth factor, insulin and Wnt signals to various downstream events such as glycogen metabolism, gene expression, proliferation and differentiation. We have isolated here a GSK-3 beta-interacting protein from a rat brain cDNA library using a yeast two-hybrid method. This protein consists of 832 amino acids and possesses Regulators of G protein Signaling (RGS) and dishevelled (Dsh) homologous domains in its N- and C-terminal regions, respectively, The predicted amino acid sequence of this GSK-3 beta-interacting protein shows 94% identity with mouse Axin, which recently has been identified as a negative regulator of the Wnt signaling pathway; therefore, we termed this protein rAxin (rat Axin), rAxin interacted directly with, and was phosphorylated by, GSK-3 beta, rAxin also interacted directly with the armadillo repeats of beta-catenin, The binding site of rAxin for GSK-3 beta was distinct from the beta-catenin-binding site, and these three proteins formed a ternary complex, Furthermore, rAxin promoted GSK-3 beta-dependent phosphorylation of beta-catenin, These results suggest that rAxin negatively regulates the Wnt signaling pathway by interacting with GSK-3 beta and beta-catenin and mediating the signal from GSK-3 beta to beta-catenin.