Transmembrane control of cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion.
The cadherin family of cell-cell adhesion molecules plays a central role in organization of cells into multicellular structures. An important feature of the action of cadherins is that they form a complex with cytoskeletal proteins, and the formation of this complex is crucial for their adhesive function. Cadherin-mediated cell adhesion is thus controlled through the interaction with cytoplasmic proteins, and, for such control, phosphorylation of these proteins and also cadherins themselves might be involved. This regulatory mechanism of cell adhesion is perhaps fundamental to a variety of morphogenetic processes.
Nagafuchi
A
A
Department of Information Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Japan.
Tsukita
S
S
Takeichi
M
M
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015820:Cadherins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology*; D003593:Cytoplasm; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010766:Phosphorylation; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
D015820:Cadherins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins