The Hippo pathway is a conserved intracellular signaling pathway with important roles in various aspects of development and homeostasis in animals. Defects in Hippo pathway regulation are associated with various types of cancers. Factors such as cell-cell contact, cell morphology and G-protein coupled receptors have been shown to regulate the Hippo pathway but the mechanisms are not very well understood.
In work published in the latest edition of the EMBO Journal, the Attisano lab describe a new regulator of this pathway, ARHGEF7 (also known as β-Pix). This factor modulates how various stimuli feed into Hippo intracellular signalling.
