Adherens junctions: new insight into assembly, modulation and function

Abstract

Adherens junctions play pivotal roles in cell and tissue organization and patterning by mediating cell adhesion and cell signaling. These junctions consist of large multiprotein complexes that join the actin cytoskeleton to the plasma membrane to form adhesive contacts between cells or between cells and extracellular matrix. The best-known adherens junction is the zonula adherens (ZA) that forms a belt surrounding the apical pole of epithelial cells. Recent studies in Drosophila have further illuminated the structure of adherens junctions. Scaffolding proteins encoded by the stardust gene are novel components of the Crumbs complex, which plays a critical role in ZA assembly.1-3 The small GTPase Rap1 controls the symmetric re-assembly of the ZA after cell division.4 Finally, the asymmetric distribution of adherens junction material regulates spindle orientation during asymmetric cell division in the sensory organ lineage.

Rapid Molecular and Morphological Responses of Prostate Cell Lines to Cell–Cell Contact

“…The difference in the integral intensities of the latter two systems is small but statistically significant different (two-tailed two sample t-test P < 0.005). Increased recruitment of F-actin to the cell-cell contact interface coincides with a strengthening of cadherin-mediated adhesion (Tepass, 2002); therefore, the lower amount of Factin at the cell-cell contact interface, shown here for DU-145 cells, is consistent with the reduced capacity of these cells to increase the length of the interfacial contact region. In general, Table 2 shows that the different indices of cell adhesion employed here are internally consistent and suggest a hierarchy of cell adhesiveness.…”

Cell adhesion receptors inC. elegans

“…C26G2.1 has sequence similarity to vertebrate nephrin, which is required for neural and kidney development in mice and humans (Putaala et al, 2001). C33F10.5 and RIG-4 are similar to vertebrate contactin, which is required for maintaining neuronal paranodal junctions (reviewed in Tepass et al, 2002). Two GPIanchored IgCAMs, RIG-3 and WRK-1, have sequence similarity, respectively, to Drosophila Klingon and Wrapper, which have been proposed to mediate cell adhesion (reviewed in Teichmann and Chothia, 2000).…”

Domain-specific early and late function of Dpatj inDrosophilaphotoreceptor cells

“…Drosophila provides an excellent genetic model for studying the regulation of apicobasal cell polarity, as many genes involved in the organization of cell polarity are structurally and functionally conserved in higher animals (Tepass, 2002). The four-PDZ domain protein Dpatj, formerly known as Discs-lost (Dlt; Bhat et al, 1999;Pielage et al, 2003), has been implicated in epithelial cell polarity based on its specific localization to the apical cell membrane and its physical interaction with important cell polarity proteins Crb and Sdt (Roh et al, 2002).…”