Ca2+ lightning conveys cell-cell contact information inside the cells

Cells communicate with each other to form organized structures by cell-cell adhesion and cell-cell repulsion, but it remains to be clarified how cell-cell contact information is converted into intracellular signals. Here, we show that cells in contact with neighbouring cells generate local transient intracellular Ca(2+) signals (Ca(2+) lightning). Ca(2+) lightning was observed near cell-cell contact regions and was not observed in the central regions of cells or in solitary cells that were not in contact with other cells. We also show that Ca(2+) lightning is able to regulate cell-cell repulsion by means of PYK2, a Ca(2+)-activated protein tyrosine kinase, which induces focal adhesion disassembly in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner. These results show that cell-cell contact information might be transmitted by Ca(2+) lightning to regulate intracellular events.