When Tuba goes silent (bottom), the plasma membrane droops (arrows).

Like passengers in a crowded subway car, cells try to limit contact with their neighbors. Otani et al. on page 135 identify a protein that helps cells minimize their closeness by keeping their membranes taut.

Subway passengers can pull in their elbows, but cells in an epithelial layer cannot avoid touching other cells. Instead, they tend to assume a hexagonal shape in which the membrane is stretched tight. Previous studies suggest that the proteins cadherin and actin help structure the adherens junctions that form at the borders where cells meet. The mystery is, what controls the membrane's tension between these intersections?

To find out, Otani et al. investigated the little-studied protein Tuba, which belongs to a group of factors that indirectly regulate actin. The researchers found that Tuba built up at cell edges. Cutting its...

The Rockefeller University Press
2006
The Rockefeller University Press
2006
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