Schmitz Caroline, Wacker Irene, Hutter Harald
Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Jahnstr. 29, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Dev Biol. 2008 Apr 15;316(2):249-59. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2008.01.024. Epub 2008 Jan 31.
Cadherins are one of the major families of adhesion molecules with diverse functions during embryonic development. Fat-like cadherins form an evolutionarily conserved subgroup characterized by an unusually large number of cadherin repeats in the extracellular domain. Here we describe the role of the Fat-like cadherin CDH-4 in Caenorhabditis elegans development. Cdh-4 mutants are characterized by hypodermal defects leading to incompletely penetrant embryonic or larval lethality with variable morphogenetic defects. Independently of the morphogenetic defects cdh-4 mutant animals also exhibit fasciculation defects in the ventral and dorsal cord, the major longitudinal axon tracts, as well as migration defects of the Q neuroblasts. In addition CDH-4 is essential for establishing and maintaining the attachment between the buccal cavity and the pharynx. Cdh-4 is expressed widely in most affected cells and tissues during embryogenesis suggesting that CDH-4 functions to ensure that proper cell contacts are made and maintained during development.
钙黏蛋白是胚胎发育过程中具有多种功能的主要黏附分子家族之一。类Fat钙黏蛋白形成一个进化上保守的亚组，其特征是细胞外结构域中存在异常大量的钙黏蛋白重复序列。在这里，我们描述了类Fat钙黏蛋白CDH - 4在秀丽隐杆线虫发育中的作用。Cdh - 4突变体的特征是皮下缺陷，导致不完全显性的胚胎或幼虫致死，并伴有可变的形态发生缺陷。与形态发生缺陷无关，cdh - 4突变动物在腹侧和背侧索（主要的纵向轴突束）中也表现出成束缺陷，以及Q神经母细胞的迁移缺陷。此外，CDH - 4对于建立和维持口腔与咽部之间的附着至关重要。Cdh - 4在胚胎发生过程中在大多数受影响的细胞和组织中广泛表达，这表明CDH - 4的功能是确保在发育过程中建立并维持适当的细胞接触。
