InCytes from MBC

Basement membranes (BMs) are vital extracellular matrix sheets that both connect and separate different cells and tissues in all multicellular animals. BMs determine organ differentiation and homeostasis. The authors provide the first report linking teneurin, a phylogenetically conserved transmembrane receptor, to BM structure and function. They discovered that Caenorhabditis elegans teneurin, ten-1, is essential for the maintenance of gonad and pharyngeal BMs. In the absence of TEN-1, the BM surrounding the gonad formed properly at hatching but ruptured during larval development. Genetic interactions were found between ten-1 and the BM components laminin and nidogen as well as the well-known BM receptors integrin and dystroglycan. Thus teneurin, integrin, and dystroglycan apparently have related and partly redundant functions. These studies in C. elegans have wider implications for the role of teneurins, integrins, and dystroglycans in vertebrates as well, since they reveal redundancy not only between several receptors of the same family but also between structurally distinct receptor families.