title: Junctional music that the nucleus hears: cell-cell contact signaling and the modulation of gene activity.
abstract: Cell-cell junctions continue to capture the interest of cell and developmental biologists, with an emerging area being the molecular means by which junctional signals relate to gene activity in the nucleus. Although complexities often arise in determining the direct versus indirect nature of such signal transduction, it is clear that such pathways are essential for the function of tissues and that alterations may contribute to many pathological outcomes. This review assesses a variety of cell-cell junction-to-nuclear signaling pathways, and outlines interesting areas for further study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Program in Genes and Development, University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. pdmccrea@mdanderson.org
authors.forename: Pierre D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: McCrea
authors.forename: Dongmin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Maria S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Balda
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D051177:Catenins / Q000378:metabolism; D002450:Cell Communication; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism*; D003896:Desmosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D015509:Developmental Biology / Q000379:methods; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D007365:Intercellular Junctions / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D051191:Plakophilins / Q000378:metabolism; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D051177:Catenins; D051191:Plakophilins; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases