Fairchild Corinne L, Barna Maria
Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2014 Aug;27:67-73. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2014.03.013. Epub 2014 Jun 5.
For over a century, biologists have strived to unravel the mechanisms that establish how cells are informed of their position in the embryo and differentiate to give rise to complex organs and structures. However, the historical idea that one predominant mode of ligand transport, largely accounted for by free diffusion, can explain how all signaling molecules, known as morphogens, control tissue patterning has greatly hindered our ability to fully appreciate the complexities driving the delivery and reception of signaling molecules at a distance. In reality, a cell's shape, morphology, and location change continuously as development progresses. Thus, cellular context poses distinct challenges for morphogen transport in each unique cellular environment. Emerging studies reveal that some cells overcome such obstacles in an unexpected manner: via long, cellular projections, or specialized filopodia, that link distant cells and traffic signaling components. Here, we will review recent findings describing specialized filopodia and discuss the potential mechanisms and implications for filopodia-based long-range cell signaling and communication, particularly within the developing vertebrate embryo.
一个多世纪以来，生物学家一直致力于揭示细胞如何得知自身在胚胎中的位置并分化形成复杂器官和结构的机制。然而，长期以来的观点认为，一种主要由自由扩散主导的配体运输模式可以解释所有被称为形态发生素的信号分子如何控制组织模式，这在很大程度上阻碍了我们全面理解远距离信号分子传递和接收过程中驱动其复杂性的能力。实际上，随着发育进程的推进，细胞的形状、形态和位置会不断变化。因此，细胞环境在每个独特的细胞环境中对形态发生素运输提出了不同的挑战。新出现的研究表明，一些细胞以一种意想不到的方式克服了这些障碍：通过长的细胞突起，即特殊的丝状伪足，连接远距离的细胞并运输信号成分。在这里，我们将回顾描述特殊丝状伪足的最新发现，并讨论基于丝状伪足的远距离细胞信号传导和通讯的潜在机制及意义，特别是在发育中的脊椎动物胚胎内。
