The Notch, Wnt, and SHH signaling pathways. (A) Notch pathway: Ligands (Delta or Jagged) binding to the receptor trigger proteolytic cleavage by γ-secretase, resulting in release of intracellular domain of the receptor (NICO), which subsequently forms a complex with the transcription factor CSL and cofactor Mastermind-like (MAML) family to activate target-gene expression. (B) Wnt pathway: In the absence of Wnt ligand, β-catenin is complexed with a group of proteins, including adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) and Axin, where it is phosphorylated by casein-kinase 1a (CK1a) and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β). On activation by the binding of Wnt ligand to the Frizzled and lipoprotein-related protein (LRP) receptors, Frizzled then binds to disheveled (Dsh), resulting in LRP phosphorylation, and Axin is translocated to the cell membrane. β-Catenin is accumulated and translocated to the nucleus and interacts with the T-cell factor (TCF) transcription factor (adapted from ref. 7). (C) SHH pathway: the receptor of SHH is the tumor-suppressor gene product, PTCH, which represses the activation of smoothened (Smo). Binding of SHH releases this repressive effect on Smo by PTCH, activating glioblastoma transcription factor (Gli1, 2, or 3 family), which than activates the transcription of target genes.