Zygote

Table of Contents - 1994 - Volume 2, Issue 03  

Article

Gap junction communication and cell adhesion in development

Robert L. DeHaana1

a1 Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA

Abstract

During the past decade growing evidence has suggested that cell-cell communication via gap junctions is crucial for early developmental processes (Warner et al., 1984; Guthrie & Gilula, 1989; Serras et al., 1989). It has been shown that embryos of mice (Kalimi & Lo, 1988), teleosts (Kimmel et al., 1984), insects (Warner & Lawrence, 1982; Ruangvoravat & Lo, 1992) and molluscs (Serras et al., 1989) become regionally organized into restricted domains of junctionally connected cells that share developmental potential. In the mouse gastrula, for example, dye-coupling experiments have demonstrated that cells within a developmental compartment have a high degree of coupling whereas cells across compartmental boundaries have reduced coupling (Kalimi & Lo, 1988). Classic experiments (Townes & Holtfretter, 1955; Steinberg, 1963) demonstrated that as cells begin to differentiate along common pathways, they develop selective adhesion properties and the ability to sort themselves from unlike neighbours (for review see Edelman 1988; Edelman et al., 1990). More recently a multitude of specific cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) have been identified that mediate these processes and trigger the cytoplasmic events that drive further differentiation (Edelman et al., 1990; Albelda, 1991; Geiger & Ayalon, 1992).

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