Intercellular junctions as force integrating anchors during epithelial cell shape transitions

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Epithelial tissues cover organ surfaces throughout our body and fulfil crucial functions such as protection, secretion and absorption. While morphogenetic mechanisms acting in the plane of adherens junctions have received much attention, little is known about how the diversity of 3D epithelial cell shapes within the columnar-cuboidal-squamous shape spectrum arises. Having focused on cuboidal-columnar shape transition in the first funding phase of the SPP1782, we now propose to specifically explore cell biological, genetic and biomechanical mechanisms that promote morphogenesis of squamous cell shapes. We will investigate the hypothesis that cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic forces are being integrated at the level of E-cadherin dependent cell-cell adhesion to guide collective cell behaviors during flattening of Drosophila follicle epithelial cells. The richness in cell shapes, a simple architecture and the easy microscopic tractability makes the follicle cell epithelium an ideal in vivo model system for this study. We propose to merge classical quantitative cell biological and genetic studies with the analysis of biomechanical parameters within the tissue. We will join forces with several SPP projects, to uncover conserved mechanosensitive mechanisms of E-cadherin function in the regulation of epithelial cell shape. Our proposed work specifically aligns with the goals of the SPP to understand how mechanical forces are sensed at intercellular junctions, how mechanical signals guide cell behaviour, and thereby aims to provide novel insights into a little understood, but profoundly fundamental aspect of epithelial morphogenesis.