Drosophila fasciclin I is a novel homophilic adhesion molecule that along with fasciclin III can mediate cell sorting.
Fasciclin I is a membrane-associated glycoprotein that is regionally expressed on a subset of fasciculating axons during neuronal development in insects; it is expressed on apposing cell surfaces, suggesting a role in specific cell adhesion. In this paper we show that Drosophila fasciclin I is a novel homophilic cell adhesion molecule. When the nonadhesive Drosophila S2 cells are transfected with the fasciclin I cDNA, they form aggregates that are blocked by antisera against fasciclin I. When cells expressing fasciclin I are mixed with cells expressing fasciclin III, another Drosophila homophilic adhesion molecule, the mixture sorts into aggregates homogeneous for either fasciclin I- or fasciclin III-expressing cells. The ability of these two novel adhesion molecules to mediate cell sorting in vitro suggests that they might play a similar role during neuronal development.
Elkins
T
T
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley 94720.
Hortsch
M
M
Bieber
A J
AJ
Snow
P M
PM
Goodman
C S
CS
D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies; D002118:Calcium / Q000502:physiology; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D015816:Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000502:physiology*; D002449:Cell Aggregation / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004330:Drosophila / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D014162:Transfection
D000906:Antibodies; D015816:Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C061565:Fas3 protein, Drosophila; C051641:fasciclin I; D002118:Calcium