QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online February 8, 2006

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?

PARsing polarity

The establishment of cell polarity is crucial for building and maintaining multicellular organisms. In Drosophila, the protein kinase Par-1 is thought to be critically involved in establishing polarity but, because par-1 mutants die early in development, the function of the kinase is poorly characterized. Now, on p. 711, Richard Carthew and colleagues use RNAi to characterize the role of Par-1 in Drosophila embryos and eye imaginal discs. By depleting maternal and zygotic Par-1, they discover that it restricts the adherens junctions that link neighbouring cells to an apical position within blastoderm cells, thus revealing a role for it in establishment of cell polarity. Other RNAi experiments indicate that Par-1 is not essential for maintaining epithelial cell polarity once it is established. However, since Par-1 overexpression disrupts polarity, Par-1 must play some role in maintenance of polarity. Finally, the authors use immunostaining and epistasis analysis to uncover a novel role for Par-1: it regulates Notch signalling during embryonic neurogenesis and retina determination, possibly by ensuring that the Notch ligand Delta is correctly localized.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

Related articles in JCS:

Par-1 kinase establishes cell polarity and functions in Notch signaling in the Drosophila embryo

Jennifer Bayraktar, Deborah Zygmunt, and Richard W. Carthew
JCS 2006 119: 711-721. [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?