Cadherins at cell-autonomous membrane contacts control macropinocytosis

Cadherins at cell-autonomous membrane contacts control macropinocytosis.

Cadherins aggregate and stabilize cell-cell junctions through interactions with adjacent cells. In addition, N-cadherin and E-cadherin concentrate at free edges or at the lamellipodia of migrating cells and are found within large vesicles called macropinosomes, which develop from membrane ruffles. The binding properties of cadherins have not previously been associated with the localization of c...

Tele-autonomous Control Involving Contacts

Plasma membrane-cell wall contacts.

In the simplest sense, cell walls are a carbohydrate and protein structures that surround and separate cells. Perhaps the most familiar cell wall structures are cork and wood, where the cell wall remains after the cells within have degraded. Cotton, the fiber that keeps some of us clothed in our complex world, is also a type of cell wall. These are specialized examples, and it is clear that liv...

Flotillin microdomains stabilize cadherins at cell-cell junctions.

Cadherins are essential in many fundamental processes and assemble at regions of cell-cell contact in large macromolecular complexes named adherens junctions. We have identified flotillin 1 and 2 as new partners of the cadherin complexes. We show that flotillins are localised at cell-cell junctions (CCJs) in a cadherin-dependent manner. Flotillins and cadherins are constitutively associated at ...

Paracrine signaling mediated at cell-cell contacts.

Recent findings in several organ systems show that cytoneme-mediated signaling transports signaling proteins along cellular extensions and targets cell-to-cell exchanges to synaptic contacts. This mechanism of paracrine signaling may be a general one that is used by many (or all) cell types in many (or all) organs. We briefly review these findings in this perspective. We also describe the prope...