Plakoglobin is required for maintenance of the cortical actin skeleton in early Xenopus embryos and for cdc42-mediated wound healing.

ABSTRACT: Early Xenopus embryos are large, and during the egg to gastrula stages, when there is little extracellular matrix, the cytoskeletons of the individual blastomeres are thought to maintain their spherical architecture and provide scaffolding for the cellular movements of gastrulation. We showed previously that depletion of plakoglobin protein during the egg to gastrula stages caused collapse of embryonic architecture. Here, we show that this is due to loss of the cortical actin skeleton after depletion of plakoglobin, whereas the microtubule and cytokeratin skeletons are still present. As a functional assay for the actin skeleton, we show that wound healing, an actin-based behavior in embryos, is also abrogated by plakoglobin depletion. Both wound healing and the amount of cortical actin are

SUBMITTER: Kofron M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2174016 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature