Background information
AIDA, also known as C1orf80, is a 306 amino acid protein that belongs to the axin interactor family. Expressed in a variety of tissues, including skeletal muscle and heart, AIDA functions as a ventralizing factor during embryogenesis, disrupting Axin homodimerization and inhibiting Axin-mediated JNK activation. Axin, a scaffold protein, is important for both JNK signaling and the canonical Wnt pathway, two processes that play an essential role in embryonic dorsoventral patterning. Disruption of Axin by AIDA results in the negative regulation of JNK and Wnt signaling, thereby affecting embryonic developmental events. Three isoforms of AIDA exist due to alternative splicing events.