gsk-3 encodes the C. elegans glycogen synthase kinase ortholog; during embryonic development, GSK-3 functions in the Wnt signaling pathway that restricts specification of mesendodermal tissue to the appropriate blastomere; GSK-3 also functions in a Wnt pathway that regulates anteroposterior axon guidance; GSK-3 plays a role in regulating the oocyte-to-embryo transition, by phosphorylating and negatively regulating the OMA-1 zinc finger protein, and in regulation of the oxidative stress response pathway by phosphorylating SKN-1, thereby excluding it from intestinal nuclei; GSK-3, along with MOM-5/Frizzled and APR-1/APC is also required for distal tip cell migration in the gonad and for the engulfment of apoptotic cells, indicating that the Wnt pathway signals to CED-10/Rac to regulate cytoskeletal rearrangement during different cellular processes; GSK-3 can be phosphorylated by murine ERK2 in vitro, suggesting that it is a substrate for the RTK-RAS-ERK pathway in vivo; consistent with this, GSK-3 phosphorylation is absent in mpk-1 mutant animals.
Enables protein serine/threonine kinase activity. Involved in several processes, including engulfment of apoptotic cell; left/right axis specification; and regulation of cellular component organization. Predicted to be located in cytosol and nucleus. Expressed in distal tip cell; seam cell; and sperm. Human ortholog(s) of this gene implicated in several diseases, including Alzheimer's disease; bipolar disorder; carcinoma (multiple); and degenerative disc disease. Is an ortholog of human GSK3A (glycogen synthase kinase 3 alpha) and GSK3B (glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta).
Map position created from combination of previous interpolated map position (based on known location of sequence) and allele information. Therefore this is not a genetic map position based on recombination frequencies or genetic experiments. This was done on advice of the CGC.