Without Endo180 to release their tails, cells elongate instead of migrating.

Like jilted lovers, migrating cells need to let go before they can move on. Slithering cells get help from endosomes, via a receptor that spurs tails to detach from the surface, as Sturge et al. show on page 337.

Before it travels, a cell breaks down the focal adhesions that link it to a substrate or the adherens junctions that bind it to other cells. Activation of Rho kinase (ROCK) aids the process by enabling the cell to disengage its rear end, but what controls ROCK isn't certain. Sturge et al. investigated the possible role of endosomes, which get involved in a multitude of cell signaling events. They find that an endosome-localized receptor, called Endo180, triggers migration by breaking connections.

Internalized Endo180 is known to set off migration. The authors found that, when...

The Rockefeller University Press
2006
The Rockefeller University Press
2006
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