Cadherin 11 localizes to focal adhesions and promotes cell substrate adhesion
Cadherin receptors have a well established role in cell cell adhesion, cell polarization and differentiation. However, some cadherins also promote cell and tissue movement during embryonic development and tumour progression. In particular, cadherin 11 is upregulated during tumour and inflammatory cell invasion, but the mechanisms underlying cadherin 11 stimulated cell migration are still incompletely understood. Here, we show that cadherin 11 localizes to focal adhesions and promotes adhesion to fibronectin in Xenopus neural crest, a highly migratory embryonic cell population. Transfected cadherin 11 also localizes to focal adhesions in different mammalian cell lines, while endogenous cadherin 11 shows focal adhesion localization in primary human fibroblasts. In focal adhesions, cadherin 11 co localizes with b1 integrin and paxillin and physically interacts with the fibronectin binding proteoglycan syndecan 4. Adhesion to fibronectin mediated by cadherin 11/syndecan 4 complexes requires both the extracellular domain of syndecan 4, and the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains of cadherin 11. These results reveal an unexpected role of a classical cadherin in cell matrix adhesion during cell migration.
Nature communications