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First published online August 29, 2005

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Cadherins at a crossroads...

Cadherins are cell-cell adhesion molecules essential for tissue integrity and development. They form two types of junction: at adherens junctions, classical cadherins, such as N-cadherin, are linked to actin through ß- and -catenin; at desmosomes, desmosomal cadherins are instead linked to intermediate filaments, such as vimentin. On p. 3883, Karen Knudsen and co-workers reveal that things are not so simple. They have developed a novel assay for cadherin function in which a steroid activates an N-cadherin mutant fused to a modified oestrogen receptor. Addition of 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4OHT) to fibroblasts expressing the mutant causes them to form tightly compacted aggregates through cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion. The authors observe that this is associated with increased interaction of N-cadherin with the cytoskeleton. Surprisingly, however, they find that this does not involve actin but vimentin. Vimentin becomes more organized at the cell periphery and can be coimmunoprecipitated with N-cadherin. More importantly, Knudsen and co-workers can block compaction of the cells by knocking down vimentin by RNAi. Their findings indicate that N-cadherin-mediated adhesion can involve intermediate filaments not just the actin cytoskeleton and thus blur the lines between the well-defined junctional complexes.

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Modulating the strength of cadherin adhesion: evidence for a novel adhesion complex

Young J. Kim, Christa Sauer, Karla Testa, James K. Wahl, Robert A. Svoboda, Keith R. Johnson, Margaret J. Wheelock, and Karen A. Knudsen
JCS 2005 118: 3883-3894. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?