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Talk by Stefan Luschnig

Title: "Making and breaking of contacts between three cells: Assembly and dynamics of tricellular junctions in epithelia"
Occasion: SFB Seminar
Host: Achim Paululat
Start: 02.11.2023 - 16:15
Location: CellNanOs, 38/201

About the speaker: Stefan Luschnig conducts research at the Institute of Integrative Cell Biology and Physiology, University of Münster.

Abstract of the talk: Epithelial barrier function is mediated by occluding junctions that seal the paracellular space between cells. Junctions between two cells (bicellular junctions) make up the most abundant intercellular contacts in epithelia and have been studied in detail. However, where three cells meet at cell vertices, specialized tricellular junctions (TCJs) composed of a distinct set of proteins mediate adhesive and occluding properties. TCJs play fundamental roles for epithelial barrier function and tissue integrity, but how these junctions are assembled and remodeled is only beginning to be understood. Using new tools to manipulate and visualize intracellular trafficking in vivo, we investigate the formation and dynamics of TCJs in epithelial organs of Drosophila. We focus on a process during oogenesis, where transient opening of cell vertices in the follicle epithelium creates gateways for paracellular transport of yolk proteins. We will discuss how modulation of actomyosin contractility and local removal of adhesion proteins from cell vertices controls epithelial permeability.