United we stand: Adhesion and molecular mechanisms driving cell fusion across species.
Cell-cell fusion is a physiological process playing an essential role for fertilization, shaping organs, tissue repair and immune defense in multicellular organisms. Recent research in the field aims to understand why two or more cells fuse each other and to decipher the general mechanisms regulating this process. Few basic and general steps can be identified, i.e. migration, adhesion and fusion, which are common to different types of cells. As pre-fused and fused cells undergo dramatic changes in their ultrastructure and behavior, the coordinated action of multiple factors is required, including adhesion molecules, cell surface receptors, intracellular kinases, transcription factors, and miRNAs. Although a number of reviews on cell-cell fusion have been published over the years, comprehensive reviews that broadly summarize this process including extracellular and intracellular cues are lacking. For example, a link between cell fusion and adhesive molecules and/or miRNAs has rarely been highlighted in the recent literature. In this review, we will summarize some molecular mechanisms controlling the process of somatic cell-cell fusion during embryonic development. We will specially focus on adhesive molecules, ECM components and miRNAs, providing a summary of important findings on their role in mediating this process in few model systems, in vertebrate and invertebrate organisms.
Istituto di Biomedicina e Immunologia Molecolare "Alberto Monroy", Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via Ugo La Malfa 153, 90146 Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: francesca.zito@ibim.cnr.it.
Francesca
F
Zito
Istituto di Biomedicina e Immunologia Molecolare "Alberto Monroy", Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via Ugo La Malfa 153, 90146 Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: nadia.lampiasi@ibim.cnr.it.
Nadia
N
Lampiasi
Department of Electron Microscopy, A. N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-40 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, Russia. Electronic address: kireev@genebee.msu.ru.
Igor
I
Kireev
Istituto di Biomedicina e Immunologia Molecolare "Alberto Monroy", Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via Ugo La Malfa 153, 90146 Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: roberta.russo@ibim.cnr.it.
Roberta
R
Russo
D000818:Animals; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002459:Cell Fusion; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans
D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules
Extracellular matrix; Migration; Osteoclasts; Primary mesenchyme cells; Transcription factors; miRNAs