Wnt for adhesion

Wnt signaling keeps a group of migrating cells together, say Florian Ulrich, Michael Krieg, Carl-Philipp Heisenberg (Max Planck Institute, Dresden, Germany), and colleagues. Wnt achieves this by promoting the recycling of adhesion molecules.

Signaling via Wnt11 is needed during vertebrate gastrulation, when the group of cells that will form the axial mesendoderm migrate en masse to the animal pole. Heisenberg's group finds that these cells are uncoordinated and migrate in various directions in the absence of Wnt11.

The authors found that Wnt11 mutants adhered less tightly, both to each other and to matrix proteins. “The ability to cohere,” says Heisenberg, “allows cells to align their [migratory] processes better. Loose clusters can project processes in all sorts of directions. Coherent ones can only put processes...