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First published online September 12, 2006

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Bottom line for epithelial polarization

The interaction between epithelial cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM) is crucial for epithelial morphogenesis. One component of this interaction is Dystroglycan (Dg), a cellular receptor that links the ECM to the cytoskeleton. On p. 3805, Schneider and colleagues report that Dg interacts with the ECM ligand - Perlecan (Pcan) - to promote and maintain epithelial polarity in the Drosophila follicle cell epithelium. The researchers report that follicle cells that lack Pcan (trol mutant cells) develop polarity defects similar to those seen in Dg mutant cells, and show that Dg and Pcan interact in vitro. They also show that Dg depends on Pcan but not on laminin (another ECM ligand of Dg) for its localization in the basal membrane domain of follicle cells. Dg promotes the differentiation of this cellular domain, the authors report, by recruiting/anchoring the cytoplasmic protein Dystrophin and excluding Neurexin, a basolateral protein. Given these results, the researchers propose that Pcan and Dg interact to promote and maintain polarity in this epithelium.

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Related articles in Development:

Perlecan and Dystroglycan act at the basal side of the Drosophila follicular epithelium to maintain epithelial organization

Martina Schneider, Ashraf A. Khalil, John Poulton, Casimiro Castillejo-Lopez, Diane Egger-Adam, Andreas Wodarz, Wu-Min Deng, and Stefan Baumgartner
Development 2006 133: 3805-3815. [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 Development 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?