PUBLICATION

Tension-dependent stabilization of E-cadherin limits cell-cell contact expansion in zebrafish germ-layer progenitor cells

Authors

Slováková, J., Sikora, M., Arslan, F.N., Caballero-Mancebo, S., Krens, S.F.G., Kaufmann, W.A., Merrin, J., Heisenberg, C.P.

ID

ZDB-PUB-220216-22

Date

2022

Source

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 119(8): (Journal)

Registered Authors

Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp, Krens, S. F. Gabby

Keywords

cell adhesion, cell?cell contact formation, mechanosensing

MeSH Terms

Cytoskeleton/physiology
Stem Cells/physiology*
Actin Cytoskeleton/physiology
Cadherins/metabolism*
Cadherins/physiology
Zebrafish/metabolism
Cell Communication/physiology
Actins/metabolism
Actomyosin/metabolism
Germ Cells/growth & development
Germ Cells/metabolism
Germ Cells/physiology*
Cell Proliferation/physiology
Cell Adhesion/physiology
Animals
alpha Catenin/metabolism

PubMed

35165179 Full text @ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA

Abstract

Tension of the actomyosin cell cortex plays a key role in determining cell-cell contact growth and size. The level of cortical tension outside of the cell-cell contact, when pulling at the contact edge, scales with the total size to which a cell-cell contact can grow [J.-L. Maître et al., Science 338, 253-256 (2012)]. Here, we show in zebrafish primary germ-layer progenitor cells that this monotonic relationship only applies to a narrow range of cortical tension increase and that above a critical threshold, contact size inversely scales with cortical tension. This switch from cortical tension increasing to decreasing progenitor cell-cell contact size is caused by cortical tension promoting E-cadherin anchoring to the actomyosin cytoskeleton, thereby increasing clustering and stability of E-cadherin at the contact. After tension-mediated E-cadherin stabilization at the contact exceeds a critical threshold level, the rate by which the contact expands in response to pulling forces from the cortex sharply drops, leading to smaller contacts at physiologically relevant timescales of contact formation. Thus, the activity of cortical tension in expanding cell-cell contact size is limited by tension-stabilizing E-cadherin-actin complexes at the contact.

Genes / Markers

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