Abstract
Cadherin-based adherens junctions (AJs) and desmosomes are crucial to couple intercellular adhesion to the actin or intermediate filament cytoskeletons, respectively. As such, these intercellular junctions are essential to provide not only integrity to epithelia and other tissues but also the mechanical machinery necessary to execute complex morphogenetic and ho-meostatic intercellular rearrangements. Moreover, these spatially defined junctions serve as signaling hubs that integrate mechanical and chemical pathways to coordinate tissue architecture with behavior. This review takes an evolutionary perspective on how the emergence of these two essential intercellular junctions at key points during the evolution of multicellular animals afforded metazoans with new opportunities to integrate adhesion, cytoskeletal dynamics, and signaling. We discuss known literature on cross-talk between the two junctions and, using the skin epidermis as an example, provide a model for how these two junctions function in concert to orchestrate tissue organization and function.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | a029207 |
| Journal | Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2018 |
Funding
Uni-We thank the Niessen, Green, and Wickström laboratory members for many fruitful and inspiring discussions as well as Alpha S. Yap for being supportive and providing great feedback. The author’s work is supported by DFG SFB 829 A11, the Max Planck Society and Max Planck Foundation (to S.A.W.), National Institutes of Helath (NIH) Grants R01 AR041836, R37 AR43380, R01 CA122151, and the J.L. Mayberry Endowment (to K.J.G.) and German Research Foundation (DFG) Grants SFB 829 A1 and A5, SPP1782-NI1234/6–1 and the German Cancer Aid (to C.M.N.). Dr. Green receives support as Associate Director of Basic Sciences in the Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University (P30 CA60553). K.J. G. and C.M.N. also thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for supporting K.J.G. while she was performing research at the Uni-versity versity of Cologne, thus providing the basis for the concepts put forward in this review. We thank the Niessen, Green, and Wickström laboratory members for many fruitful and inspiring discussions as well as Alpha S. Yap for being supportive and providing great feedback. The author’s work is supported by DFG SFB 829 A11, the Max Planck Society and Max Planck Foundation (to S.A.W.), National Institutes of Helath (NIH) Grants R01 AR041836, R37 AR43380, R01 CA122151, and the J.L. Mayberry Endowment (to K.J.G.) and German Research Foundation (DFG) Grants SFB 829 A1 and A5, SPP1782-NI1234/6–1 and the German Cancer Aid (to C.M.N.). Dr. Green receives support as Associate Director of Basic Sciences in the Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University (P30 CA60553). K.J. G. and C.M.N. also thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for supporting K.J.G. while she was performing research at the Uni- versity of Cologne, thus providing the basis for the concepts put forward in this review.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology