{"title":"The Lego hypothesis of tissue morphogenesis: stereotypic organization of parallel orientational cell adhesions for epithelial self-assembly.","authors":"Lili Zhang, Xiangyun Wei","doi":"10.1111/brv.13147","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>How tissues develop distinct structures remains poorly understood. We propose herein the Lego hypothesis of tissue morphogenesis, which states that during tissue morphogenesis, the topographical properties of cell surface adhesion molecules can be dynamically altered and polarised by regulating the spatiotemporal expression and localization of orientational cell adhesion (OCA) molecules cell-autonomously and non-cell-autonomously, thus modulating cells into unique Lego pieces for self-assembling into distinct cytoarchitectures. This concept can be exemplified by epithelial morphogenesis, in which cells are coalesced into a sheet by many types of adhesions. Among them, parallel OCAs (pOCAs) at the lateral cell membranes are essential for configuring cells in parallel. Major pOCAs include Na<sup>+</sup>/K<sup>+</sup>-ATPase-mediated adhesions, Crumbs-mediated adhesions, tight junctions, adherens junctions, and desmosomes. These pOCAs align in stereotypical orders along the apical-to-basal axis, and their absolute positioning is also regulated. Such spatial organization of pOCAs underlies proper epithelial morphogenesis. Thus, a key open question about tissue morphogenesis is how to regulate OCAs to make compatible adhesive cellular Lego pieces for tissue construction.</p>","PeriodicalId":133,"journal":{"name":"Biological Reviews","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Biological Reviews","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.13147","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
How tissues develop distinct structures remains poorly understood. We propose herein the Lego hypothesis of tissue morphogenesis, which states that during tissue morphogenesis, the topographical properties of cell surface adhesion molecules can be dynamically altered and polarised by regulating the spatiotemporal expression and localization of orientational cell adhesion (OCA) molecules cell-autonomously and non-cell-autonomously, thus modulating cells into unique Lego pieces for self-assembling into distinct cytoarchitectures. This concept can be exemplified by epithelial morphogenesis, in which cells are coalesced into a sheet by many types of adhesions. Among them, parallel OCAs (pOCAs) at the lateral cell membranes are essential for configuring cells in parallel. Major pOCAs include Na+/K+-ATPase-mediated adhesions, Crumbs-mediated adhesions, tight junctions, adherens junctions, and desmosomes. These pOCAs align in stereotypical orders along the apical-to-basal axis, and their absolute positioning is also regulated. Such spatial organization of pOCAs underlies proper epithelial morphogenesis. Thus, a key open question about tissue morphogenesis is how to regulate OCAs to make compatible adhesive cellular Lego pieces for tissue construction.
期刊介绍:
Biological Reviews is a scientific journal that covers a wide range of topics in the biological sciences. It publishes several review articles per issue, which are aimed at both non-specialist biologists and researchers in the field. The articles are scholarly and include extensive bibliographies. Authors are instructed to be aware of the diverse readership and write their articles accordingly.
The reviews in Biological Reviews serve as comprehensive introductions to specific fields, presenting the current state of the art and highlighting gaps in knowledge. Each article can be up to 20,000 words long and includes an abstract, a thorough introduction, and a statement of conclusions.
The journal focuses on publishing synthetic reviews, which are based on existing literature and address important biological questions. These reviews are interesting to a broad readership and are timely, often related to fast-moving fields or new discoveries. A key aspect of a synthetic review is that it goes beyond simply compiling information and instead analyzes the collected data to create a new theoretical or conceptual framework that can significantly impact the field.
Biological Reviews is abstracted and indexed in various databases, including Abstracts on Hygiene & Communicable Diseases, Academic Search, AgBiotech News & Information, AgBiotechNet, AGRICOLA Database, GeoRef, Global Health, SCOPUS, Weed Abstracts, and Reaction Citation Index, among others.