Cell biology: Polarity bites

The cell biology of planar cell polarity

Planar cell polarity (PCP) refers to the coordinated alignment of cell polarity across the tissue plane. Key to the establishment of PCP is asymmetric partitioning of cortical PCP components and intercellular communication to coordinate polarity between neighboring cells. Recent progress has been made toward understanding how protein transport, endocytosis, and intercellular interactions contri...

Neuronal cell biology, polarity, subcellular specialization

Cell polarity: quantitative modeling as a tool in cell biology.

Among a number of innovative approaches that have modernized cell biology, modeling has a prominent yet unusual place. One popular view is that we progress linearly, from conceptual to ever more detailed models. We review recent discoveries of cell polarity mechanisms, in which modeling played an important role, to demonstrate that the experiment-theory feedback loop requires diverse models cha...

Cell biology of planar polarity transmission in the Drosophila wing

The coordination of epithelial planar polarization is a critical step in the formation of well-ordered tissues. The process has been extensively studied in Drosophila, where genetic analysis has identified a set of "tissue polarity" genes that serve to coordinate planar polarity of cells in the developing wings, bristles and eyes. In the last several years, it has emerged that six of these gene...

Cell polarity: Fixing cell polarity with Pins

A protein complex is assembled in a step-wise manner at the apical pole of Drosophila neuroblasts. This complex organizes the apical-basal polarity of asymmetrically dividing neuroblasts, and may act via G-protein signalling.