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Apicobasal polarity is a type of cell polarity specific to epithelial cells, referring to a specialised apical membrane facing the outside of the body or lumen of internal cavities, and a specialised basolateral membrane localised at the opposite side, away from the lumen. The two domains are often physically separated by adherens junctions complexes.
Characterization of the multi-surface interaction between Lgl and the aPKC/Par6 complex reveals the mechanistic basis for a processive phosphorylation of Lgl, highlighting an important role of Par6 in regulating epithelial polarity.
Subcellular mRNA localization is prevalent but with poorly understood physiological roles. Here, the authors show that Net1 mRNA targeting to the basement membrane controls epithelial tissue organization and keratinocyte-stromal connections.
Human liver portal fibroblasts can enhance and stabilize the functions of primary human hepatocytes in both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional culture formats, and such occurs partly due to insulin-like growth factor binding protein 5 signaling.
PMCA4 promotes epithelial polarization and lumen formation, while its loss induces partial EMT in luminal breast cancer cells. Its downregulation in LUMA/B1 breast cancer correlates with poor survival and may therefore serve as a prognostic marker.
Embryo gastrulation involves multiple simultaneous morphogenetic transformations that must be coordinated. Here, the authors show that nuclear migration acts as a spatiotemporal regulator of the cytoskeleton to drive complex tissue remodeling.
Functional single-cell liver hemi-canaliculi have been generated in a synthetic microenvironment using a reductionist approach. It is shown that the interaction between the extracellular matrix and static cadherin is sufficient to develop an apicobasal polarity independently of the contact with neighbouring cells.
In this Journal Club, Audrey Williams and Sally Horne-Badovinac highlight the importance of studying the basal cell surface and its dynamics to understand epithelial cell behaviours and tissue rearrangements.
Tangential expansion of neural stem cells in the mammalian neocortex increases the number of cortical columns. A new study shows that neural stem cells that become detached from the apical surface during division regenerate an apical endfoot to ensure tangential expansion in the early stage but later lose this ability when radial expansion occurs.
A recent study published inNature Cell Biologyhas shown that tumour spheres that maintain an inverted epithelial architecture originate from primary colorectal cancers and can collectively invade the peritoneum, initiating metastasis.
