Structure, function, regulation: experimental analysis in groups of non-excitable cells coupled via permeable junctions.

This presentation reviews the functional properties of different permeable junctions (microplasmodesmata of filamentous cyanobacteria, septal pores of fungi, and gap junctions of animals). Examples of the distribution of power by ionic fluxes and electric current through permeable cell-cell junctions are considered. Based on the analysis of intercellular communication occurring during apical growth of hyphae of wild-type and mutant lines of the mycelial fungus Neurospora crassa, approaches to studies of the molecular and genetic mechanisms of self-organization in systems of cells with permeable junctions are discussed.