Study of the establishment of epithelial polarity: search for new proteins that interact with apkc

Abstract

A key issue in developmental biology is the relationship between cell polarity and signal transduction pathways. Most eukaryotic cells are polarized with an asymmetric distribution of molecules and organelles resulting in different functional regions required for cell physiology. The control of this polarity in space and time is essential to coordinate changes in cell morphology with proliferation and morphogenetic movements required for the development of the organism. This control is carried out by signalling pathways, which in many cases are regulated by the subcellular localization of their components. In fact, there is a close relationship between polarity and the control of cell proliferation, since many receptors of intercellular communication pathways that regulate proliferation are located and activated in specific domains of the plasma membrane. Therefore, the understanding of the signalling pathways‐cell polarity relationship is crucial for the knowledge of how signals are integrated to induce morphogenesis but also how are modified in aberrant processes as those occurring in cancer. The atypical protein kinase C (aPKC) is a crucial protein in the cell polarity establishment or maintenance and also can participate in many other processes in the cell. aPKC has an enzymatic activity and can regulate different signaling pathways in the cell. In all these processes aPKC interact, depending on the process, with different regulators and modifies different substrates. In addition, aPKC is an oncogene. To understand how cell polarity is established, maintained and modified and also how this polarity can regulate signalling processes we have focused on to find out new proteins that interact with aPKC.