Setting up a selective barrier at the apical junction complex.

Across the animal kingdom the apical junction complex of epithelial cells creates both a permeability barrier and cell polarity. Although based on overlapping and evolutionarily conserved proteins, the cell-cell contacts of nematodes, flies and mammals appear to differ in morphology and functional organization. Emerging evidence shows that the selective pore-like properties of vertebrate and invertebrate barriers are created by the claudin family. Similarly, assembly of the barriers requires a conserved set of polarity-generating protein complexes, particularly the PAR protein complexes.

Citation

James Melvin Anderson, Christina M Van Itallie, Alan S Fanning. Setting up a selective barrier at the apical junction complex. Current opinion in cell biology. 2004 Apr;16(2):140-5

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PMID: 15196556

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