Cells with strong β-catenin signaling (red) are sorted out of the notochord with other somitic cells (green nuclear staining).

Cells of a feather stick together, but not because of common adhesion levels, new evidence suggests. The findings from Reintsch et al. (page 675) put into question an old theory of adhesion-based cell sorting.

Cells sort, this theory proposes, according to their adhesiveness. In a mixed population, stickier cells aggregate in the middle, and less adhesive cells are driven to the periphery. Adhesion-based differences are thus used to explain why cells do not cross boundaries separating two tissues.

Such boundaries exist between the notochord and somite in the developing frog embryo. This boundary depends on β-catenin, which induces somite formation and inhibits notochord development. β-Catenin connects the the cytoskeleton to adhesion protein cadherin, suggesting that the old theory might be at play. But the...

The Rockefeller University Press
2005
The Rockefeller University Press
2005
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