Tsutomu OKA*, Eline REMUE†‡, Kris MEERSCHAERT†‡, Berlinda VANLOO†‡, Ciska BOUCHERIE†‡, David GFELLER§, Gary D. BADER§, Sachdev S. SIDHU§, Joël VANDEKERCKHOVE†‡, Jan GETTEMANS†‡ and Marius SUDOL*‖2 *Weis Center for Research, 100 North Academy Avenue, Danville, PA 17822, U.S.A., †Department of Medical Protein Research, VIB, Ghent University, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium, ‡Department of Biochemistry, Fac...

Disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is the hallmark of many neurovascular disorders, making it a critically important focus for therapeutic options. However, testing the effects of either drugs or pathological agents is difficult due to the potentially damaging consequences of altering the normal brain microenvironment. Recently, in vitro coculture tissue models have been developed as a...

Merlin *merlin/NF2 Merlin NFM-1 Protein 4.1 4.1R, G, N, B Coracle Spectrin α-spectrin (1–2), β-spectrin (1–4), β heavy-spectrin/ karst α-spectrin, β-spectrin, β heavyspectrin/Karst SPC-1 (α-spectrin), UNC-70 (β-spectrin), SMA-1 (β heavyspectrin) Cell-Cell Junctions α-catenin α-catenin 1–3 α-catenin HMP-1 Afadin afadin/AF6 Canoe AFD-1 ZO-1 ZO-1, ZO-2, ZO-3 ZO-1/Polychaetoid †Q56VX4 Cell-Extracel...

The development of human cancers is frequently associated with a failure of epithelial cells to form tight junctions and to establish proper apicobasal polarity. Interestingly, the oncogenic potential of the adenovirus E4-ORF1 protein correlates with its binding to the cellular PDZ proteins MUPP1, MAGI-1, ZO-2 and SAP97, the first three of which assemble protein complexes at tight junctions. Gi...

A fundamental question in cell and developmental biology is how epithelial cells construct the diffusion barrier allowing them to separate different body compartments. Formation of tight junction (TJ) strands, which are crucial for this barrier, involves the polymerization of claudins, TJ adhesion molecules, in temporal and spatial manners. ZO-1 and ZO-2 are major PDZ-domain-containing TJ prote...

The polarized functions of epithelia require an intact tight junction (TJ) to restrict paracellular movement and to separate membrane proteins into specific domains. TJs contain scaffolding, integral membrane and signaling proteins, but the mechanisms that regulate TJs and their assembly are not well defined. Galpha12 (GNA12) binds the TJ protein ZO-1 (TJP1), and Galpha12 activates Src to incre...

Proteins of the SNX (sorting nexin) superfamily are characterized by the presence of a PX (Phox homology) domain and associate with PtdIns3P (phosphatidylinositol-3-monophosphate)-rich regions of the endosomal system. SNX27 is the only sorting nexin that contains a PDZ domain. In the present study, we used a proteomic approach to identify a novel interaction between SNX27 and ZO-2 [zonula occlu...