[HTML][HTML] Cell adhesion: the molecular basis of tissue architecture and morphogenesis

BM Gumbiner - Cell, 1996 - cell.com
BM Gumbiner
Cell, 1996cell.com
Cell adhesion is crucial for the assembly of individual cells into the three-dimensional
tissues of animals. Cells do not simply “stick” together to form tissues, but rather are
organized into very diverse and highly distinctive patterns. A variety of cell adhesion
mechanisms are responsible for assembling cells together and, along with their connections
to the internal cytoskeleton, determine the overall architecture of the tissue. Thus, cell
adhesion systems should be regarded as mechanisms that help translate basic genetic …
Cell adhesion is crucial for the assembly of individual cells into the three-dimensional tissues of animals. Cells do not simply “stick” together to form tissues, but rather are organized into very diverse and highly distinctive patterns. A variety of cell adhesion mechanisms are responsible for assembling cells together and, along with their connections to the internal cytoskeleton, determine the overall architecture of the tissue. Thus, cell adhesion systems should be regarded as mechanisms that help translate basic genetic information into the complex three-dimensional patterns of cells in tissues.
The goal of this review is to illustrate the roles of adhesion mechanisms in the generation of tissue architecture. To understand tissue morphogenesis, it is essential to know the endpoint of the process, and therefore we will first consider the molecular basis of cell adhesion in fully formed tissues, that is, what maintains the structure at steady state once the tissue has developed. In the second part, we will consider how these cell arrangements arise during tissue development, which can occur either in embryos or in tissues undergoing development in adult organisms. It is important to appreciate, however, that distinguishing between stable adhesive interactions and dynamic adhesive events in developing tissues is somewhat arbitrary, because both often utilize the same sets of adhesion proteins and in many cases represent varying functional states of the same adhesive mechanism. For this reason, we must also understand the mechanisms that regulate the functional states of adhesion molecules and the dynamics of cell adhesion, a subject that will be discussed in the third part of the review. Of course, tissue morphogenesis requires an intimate cooperation between physical cell adhesion events and signaling processes that control the transfer of information between cells. There is overwhelming evidence that cell adhesion proteins both respond to cell signaling events and themselves transduce signals into the cell. Therefore, the last part of the review will be concerned with the relationship between physical cell adhesion mechanisms and intercellular signaling.
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