{"doi":"10.1242/dev.184341","title":"The RNA helicase DDX3 induces neural crest by promoting AKT activity","abstract":"Mutations in the RNA helicase DDX3 have emerged as a frequent cause of intellectual disability in humans. Because many patients carrying DDX3 mutations have additional defects in craniofacial structures and other tissues containing neural crest (NC)-derived cells, we hypothesized that DDX3 is also important for NC development. Using Xenopus tropicalis as a model, we show that DDX3 is required for normal NC induction and craniofacial morphogenesis by regulating AKT kinase activity. Depletion of DDX3 decreases AKT activity and AKT-dependent inhibitory phosphorylation of GSK3β, leading to reduced levels of β-catenin and Snai1, two GSK3β substrates that are critical for NC induction. DDX3 function in regulating these downstream signaling events during NC induction is likely mediated by RAC1, a small GTPase whose translation depends on the RNA helicase activity of DDX3. These results suggest an evolutionarily conserved role of DDX3 in NC development by promoting AKT activity, and provide a potential mechanism for the NC-related birth defects displayed by patients harboring mutations in DDX3 and its downstream effectors in this signaling cascade.","journal":"Development","year":2020,"id":68795,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":22,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.954,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":364412,"name":"Xiaolu Xu","orcid":"0009-0006-5887-2620","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364413,"name":"Congyu Lu","orcid":"0000-0003-2651-6251","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364414,"name":"Yu Shi","orcid":"0000-0001-6742-9598","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":365578,"name":"Natasha Yousaf","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364415,"name":"Jiejing Li","orcid":"0000-0003-0312-0641","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364416,"name":"Yvette Y. Yien","orcid":"0000-0001-6451-9272","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364417,"name":"Shuo Wei","orcid":"0000-0001-8203-4922","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364411,"name":"Mark Perfetto","orcid":"0000-0001-8546-0839","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":89,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:41:52.279368Z","pmid":"33318149","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}