title: Epithelial cell surface polarity: the early steps.
abstract: Establishment and maintenance of epithelial cell surface polarity is of vital importance for the correct function of transporting epithelia. To maintain normal cell function, the distribution of apical and basal-lateral proteins is highly regulated and defects in expression levels or plasma membrane targeting can have severe consequences. It has been shown recently that initiation of cell-surface polarity occurs immediately upon cell-cell contact, and requires components of the lateral targeting patch, the Exocyst and the lateral SNARE complex to specify delivery of basolateral proteins to the site of cell-cell adhesion. The Exocyst and SNARE complex are present in the cytoplasm in single epithelial cells before adhesion. Upon initial cell-cell adhesion, E-cadherin accumulates at the forming contact between cells. Shortly hereafter, components of the lateral targeting patch, the Exocyst and the lateral SNARE complex, co-localize with E-cadherin at the forming contact, where they function in specifying the delivery of basal-lateral.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biology, and Molecular and Cellular Physiology, The James H. Clark Center, Bio-X Program, Stanford University, 318 Campus Drive E200, Stanford, CA 94305-5430, USA. nejsum@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Lene N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Nejsum
authors.forename: W James
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D002448:Cell Adhesion; D016764:Cell Polarity; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D021381:Protein Transport