The release of intercellular contacts in MDBK cells, initiated by the depletion of Ca2+ ions from the culture medium, results in the endocytotic uptake of membrane vesicles containing specific membrane constituents of the zonula adhaerens (ZA). During this process the junction-derived, endocytosed vesicles remain associated with the ZA plaque components, while the plaque and its attached actin filaments retract as a whole in a ring-like fashion from the plasma membrane, often accumulating, usually in fragments, in the juxtanuclear cytoplasm. Double-label immunofluorescence microscopy with antiplakoglobin and antivinculin has indicated that both plaque proteins colocalize with the hallmark membrane glycoprotein of this junction type, E-cadherin (uvomorulin). When HRP used as a fluid phase marker is applied to the culture medium, simultaneously with the Ca2+ ion-chelator EGTA, numerous HRP-positive vesicles are found in close association with the dislocated plaque material, suggesting that the HRP is contained in the vesicles formed upon EGTA-induced junction splitting. Immunoelectron microscopy with various cadherin-specific antibodies revealed vesicle-associated labeling, confirming the derivation of these plaque-associated vesicles from the ZA. As the desmosome-specific cadherin, desmoglein, is recovered in another type of junction-derived vesicle, which is characterized by its association with a desmoplakin-plaque, we conclude that the membrane domains of both kinds of junction are endocytosed during Ca2+ depletion but stay in different vesicle populations, emphasizing the selective interaction of the specific cadherins with their respective plaque and filament partners.
Article|
May 15 1991
Endocytosis of junctional cadherins in bovine kidney epithelial (MDBK) cells cultured in low Ca2+ ion medium.
J Kartenbeck,
J Kartenbeck
Institute of Cell and Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg.
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M Schmelz,
M Schmelz
Institute of Cell and Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg.
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W W Franke,
W W Franke
Institute of Cell and Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg.
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B Geiger
B Geiger
Institute of Cell and Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg.
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J Kartenbeck
Institute of Cell and Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg.
M Schmelz
Institute of Cell and Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg.
W W Franke
Institute of Cell and Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg.
B Geiger
Institute of Cell and Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg.
Online ISSN: 1540-8140
Print ISSN: 0021-9525
J Cell Biol (1991) 113 (4): 881–892.
Citation
J Kartenbeck, M Schmelz, W W Franke, B Geiger; Endocytosis of junctional cadherins in bovine kidney epithelial (MDBK) cells cultured in low Ca2+ ion medium.. J Cell Biol 15 May 1991; 113 (4): 881–892. doi: https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.113.4.881
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