Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Using Primary Neurosphere Cultures to Study Primary Cilia
Published on: April 14, 2017
Roles of cell-adhesion molecules nectin 1 and nectin 3 in ciliary body development
Maiko Inagaki1, Kenji Irie, Hiroyoshi Ishizaki
1Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine/Faculty of Medicine, Suita 565-0871, Japan.
Abstract:
Nectins are Ca2+-independent immunoglobulin-like cell-cell-adhesion molecules consisting of four members. Nectins homophilically and heterophilically trans-interact to form a variety of cell-cell junctions, including cadherin-based adherens junctions in epithelial cells and fibroblasts in culture, synaptic junctions in neurons, and Sertoli cell-spermatid junctions in the testis, in cooperation with, or independently of, cadherins. To further explore the function of nectins, we generated nectin 1-/- and nectin 3-/-)mice. Both nectin 1-/- and nectin 3-/- mice showed a virtually identical ocular phenotype, microphthalmia, accompanied by a separation of the apex-apex contact between the pigment and non-pigment cell layers of the ciliary epithelia. Immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy revealed that nectin 1 and nectin 3, but not nectin 2, localized at the apex-apex junctions between the pigment and non-pigment cell layers of the ciliary epithelia. However, nectin 1-/- and nectin 3-/- mice showed no impairment of the apicolateral junctions between the pigment epithelia where nectin 1, nectin 2 and nectin 3 localized, or of the apicolateral junctions between the non-pigment epithelia where nectin 2 and nectin 3, but not nectin 1, localized. These results indicate that the heterophilic trans-interaction between nectin 1 and nectin 3 plays a sentinel role in establishing the apex-apex adhesion between the pigment and non-pigment cell layers of the ciliary epithelia that is essential for the morphogenesis of the ciliary body.
Related Concept Videos
Catenins
Catenins in Cell Junctions
Catenins bind to cell adhesion molecules such as cadherins and link them to different cytoskeletal proteins depending on the type of cell junction. At the adherens...
Microtubules in Signaling
Immunoglobulin-like Cell Adhesion Molecules
Ig-CAMs exhibit either homophilic binding (to other Ig-CAMs) or heterophilic binding (to other ligands such as integrins). While most Ig-CAMs...
Adherens Junctions
Adherens Junctions are Dynamic
The endothelial cells...
Anchoring Junctions
Cell Adhesion Molecules - Types and Functions
CAM Families
The Integrin family of proteins is primarily involved in a...
