Mechanical heterogeneity along single cell-cell junctions is driven by lateral clustering of cadherins during vertebrate axis elongation

eLife

D Thirumalai¹  Abdul Naseer Malmi-Kakkada²  Sena Sarıkaya³  John B Wallingford³  Shinuo Weng³  Robert J Huebner³ 

[1] Department of Chemistry, University of Texas, Austin, United States;Department of Chemistry, University of Texas, Austin, United States;Department of Chemistry and Physics, Augusta University, Augusta, Georgia;Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas, Austin, United States;

关键词: cadherin;    heterogeneity;    axis elongation;    planar cell polarity;    Xenopus;   

DOI  :  10.7554/eLife.65390

来源: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

【 摘 要 】

Morphogenesis is governed by the interplay of molecular signals and mechanical forces across multiple length scales. The last decade has seen tremendous advances in our understanding of the dynamics of protein localization and turnover at subcellular length scales, and at the other end of the spectrum, of mechanics at tissue-level length scales. Integrating the two remains a challenge, however, because we lack a detailed understanding of the subcellular patterns of mechanical properties of cells within tissues. Here, in the context of the elongating body axis of Xenopus embryos, we combine tools from cell biology and physics to demonstrate that individual cell-cell junctions display finely-patterned local mechanical heterogeneity along their length. We show that such local mechanical patterning is essential for the cell movements of convergent extension and is imparted by locally patterned clustering of a classical cadherin. Finally, the patterning of cadherins and thus local mechanics along cell-cell junctions are controlled by Planar Cell Polarity signaling, a key genetic module for CE that is mutated in diverse human birth defects.

【 授权许可】

CC BY