JCB logo
amgmicro.com
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF, 8965K)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JCB
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bornslaeger, E. A.
Right arrow Articles by Green, K. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Bornslaeger, E. A.
Right arrow Articles by Green, K. J.
Social Bookmarking
 Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Journal of Cell Biology, Vol 134, 985-1001, Copyright © 1996 by The Rockefeller University Press


ARTICLES

Breaking the connection: displacement of the desmosomal plaque protein desmoplakin from cell-cell interfaces disrupts anchorage of intermediate filament bundles and alters intercellular junction assembly

EA Bornslaeger, CM Corcoran, TS Stappenbeck and KJ Green
Department of Pathology, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA.

The desmosomal plaque protein desmoplakin (DP), located at the juncture between the intermediate filament (IF) network and the cytoplasmic tails of the transmembrane desmosomal cadherins, has been proposed to link IF to the desmosomal plaque. Consistent with this hypothesis, previous studies of individual DP domains indicated that the DP COOH terminus associates with IF networks whereas NH2-terminal sequences govern the association of DP with the desmosomal plaque. Nevertheless, it had not yet been demonstrated that DP is required for attaching IF to the desmosome. To test this proposal directly, we generated A431 cell lines stably expressing DP NH2-terminal polypeptides, which were expected to compete with endogenous DP during desmosome assembly. As these polypeptides lacked the COOH-terminal IF-binding domain, this competition should result in the loss of IF anchorage if DP is required for linking IF to the desmosomal plaque. In such cells, a 70-kD DP NH2- terminal polypeptide (DP-NTP) colocalized at cell-cell interfaces with desmosomal proteins. As predicted, the distribution of endogenous DP was severely perturbed. At cell-cell borders where endogenous DP was undetectable by immunofluorescence, there was a striking absence of attached tonofibrils (IF bundles). Furthermore, DP-NTP assembled into ultrastructurally identifiable junctional structures lacking associated IF bundles. Surprisingly, immunofluorescence and immunogold electron microscopy indicated that adherens junction components were coassembled into these structures along with desmosomal components and DP-NTP. These results indicate that DP is required for anchoring IF networks to desmosomes and furthermore suggest that the DP-IF complex is important for governing the normal spatial segregation of adhesive junction components during their assembly into distinct structures.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:



  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents