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Early embryonic cells in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos interact through a signaling pathway closely related to the Notch signaling pathway in Drosophila and vertebrates. Components of this pathway include a ligand, receptor, the presenilin proteins, and a novel protein, APH-2, that is related to the Nicastrin protein in humans. Here we identify the aph-1 gene as a new component of the Notch pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans. aph-1 is predicted to encode a novel, highly conserved multipass membrane protein. We show that aph-1 and the presenilin genes share a similar function in that they are both required for proper cell-surface localization of APH-2/Nicastrin.
Goutte et al. (Tue,) studied this question.